


Musings of the White Wolf

by SeleneJessabelle12626



Series: Musings of the White Wolf [1]
Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Bucky and Shuri are bros, Bucky loves Wakanda, Canon-Typical Violence, Erik Lives AU, Gen, Golden Jaguar Erik, Implied Past Steve/Bucky, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Mostly Fluff, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, POV Bucky Barnes, Protective Erik, Sibling Fluff, Sort of not Tony friendly, but stay tuned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 07:11:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 54
Words: 65,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13829109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeleneJessabelle12626/pseuds/SeleneJessabelle12626
Summary: Wakanda was fascinating place for any outsider, but its people were what interested Bucky the most.A series of semi-interconnected one shots about Bucky's life in Wakanda.





	1. Interruption

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look another Black Panther story. 
> 
> There isn't quite a plot to this because each chapter is kind of its own thing, but they are loosely connected in a timeline. Also Erik is alive because I want him to be.

Bucky wakes up from cryo to a frazzled looking teenager with braids tied back into a ponytail. He nearly takes a swing at her on instinct, but his body and mind are too sluggish to do much beside raise his arm feebly and by that point he realizes she’s not a threat despite the panic in her stance.

“I am sorry to wake you like this Sergeant Barnes but we have to go.” She explains quickly, taking his hand and helping him step out of the cryo pod.

“Whas goin on?” He tries but his words are a slur. “Whas wrong wit me?” He tried again but nothing close to intelligible comes from his lips.

“You are still ‘thawing’ for lack of a better term.” She quickly explains in hushed tones, his slur having been understandable enough. She leads him to a wall in the lab and raises her wrist to it, the panel lighting up before falling away. “You are not fixed yet Sergeant”

“Call me Bucky” he interrupts, nearly tripping over his feet as she practically pulls him down a staircase.

“Everything will be fine, I just need to get you to a more secure location.”

Three more secret doors and they enter a room with another cryo pod, this one older looking that the one upstairs but still light years better than what HYDRA had used.

She moved quickly to the control panel, her fingers flying across the interface and powering up the pod. “Next time we see each other” she trailed off and for the first time he noticed the remnants of tear tracks on her face. She’d been crying and recently.

“I promised your friend I would fix you and I will.” She said with a hopeful smile but he couldn’t help but feel it was forced.

Despite that he stepped into the pod and said, “Can’t say I know exactly who you are, but I trust you. Your people haven’t given me a reason not to.” He tried to give her a smile, the winning one James Buchanan Barnes had been known for back in the day, it came out weaker than he’d wanted but she still returned it.

“Rest well Bucky.”

As the pod closed and he felt the chill seep back into his bones, he realized that he had remembered how he’d been before the army, but before he could think further everything faded to black.


	2. Thaw

_“He tried to hit me last time I woke him.”_

There was laughter. He could hear people talking. He couldn’t understand them but it didn’t matter. He was awake. He tried to open his eyes but they wouldn’t cooperate.

A harsh beeping filled the air and one of the voices grew excited.

 _“He lives!”_ A woman’s voice called out with a laugh.

The beeping stopped and the woman spoke up again “Sergeant Barnes, can you hear me?”

“Call me Bucky” he tried to say but no sound came out.

“If you can hear me try to wiggle your fingers.”

He did as he was told and despite being unable to feel his fingers, he was able to feel the pressure of them against whatever he was laying against.

“Good, I am glad you are with us. You are going through the unfreezing process right now. It will be a few minutes before you have full control of your motor functions.” She warned him.

Slowly but surely the feeling began to come back to his body bit by bit. Under the instruction of the woman, his doctor he assumed, he moved and tested each part as he could feel it. It seemed like hours later before he was able to open his eyes, blearily blinking at the harsh light.

“Wha happened? Where m’i?”

A penlight was shone in his eyes and he squinted away from it. When the light clicked off he saw a familiar face framed by a crown of braids. “Reflexes and motor response are good, still working on the speech but that is to be expected with how long it has been since you used it. Looks like you will be just fine Sergeant Barnes.”

“Bucky” He corrected, his voice rough from disuse.

“How do you feel Bucky?” she asked kindly, stepping over to grab a tablet from a nearby table.

“Cold.” He said, earning a chuckle from her.

She scanned him over with the tablet and slipped a bracelet made of thick beads around his wrist, tapping them with her own. “Kimoyo beads.” She explained. “We all wear them. Yours are connected to mine. If anything comes up you can tap this bead and it will notify me immediately, also if anything strange occurs with your health they will let me know. I am going to have a doctor come give you a check-up but I am the one leading your recovery.”

“Who’re you anyway? And where am I?” He asked as she picked up a brightly colored piece of cloth and a set of simple loose pants and handed them over to him to cover the simple underclothes he’d been wearing.

She frowned at his questions and tapped something on her tablet.

“What do you remember Bucky?”


	3. Erik

Shuri’s Kimoyo beads chirp happily weeks later when he is sitting in her lab next to her. She’s working on calibrating and testing his new arm, made entirely of Vibranium she tells him. The same stuff Steve’s shield is made of. It’s what makes Wakanda so advanced, the lifeblood of the country and the people.

“I will be with you in a minute N’Jadaka.” She says, eyes not leaving the tiny wires she is micro-welding together. She has on special goggles and told Bucky to look away from the arm, but also subsequently from the door, so he doesn’t see who their visitor is.

“How’d ya know it was me?” A man, N’Jadaka, asks, one whose voice Bucky didn’t recognize.

There were a few people, constants in Shuri’s life, which he had come to recognize by voice alone, both in English and Xhosa. T’Challa was the only man who consistently visited Shuri and this man’s accent was nowhere near the lilt of African sounds that Bucky had become so accustomed to hearing.

Out of the corner of his eye Bucky saw Shuri lift her free hand, the one with her Kimoyo beads, by way of explanation.

“Those things still connected to mine?”

“Until I disconnect them.” Shuri replies, sitting up straight and removing her goggles, the welding done for now.

“Bucky, this is N’Jadaka”

“Erik” The man corrects immediately, staring down at Bucky with an unimpressed gaze. “You the broken white boy she’s been working on then?”

“I guess I am.” Bucky replied, looking Erik in the eyes. He’d been up against people much more threatening before, though he could see something familiar in Erik’s eyes.

“Be nice.” Shuri reprimands Erik, swiping the golden necklace from his neck as she walks past, Erik ducking slightly to make it easier for her to remove it.

Bucky can’t help but notice the similarities to T’Challa’s Black Panther necklace, though Erik’s seems much more ornate. T’Challa’s was minimal, just the stylized silver panther claws on a thin chain. Erik’s is made of what look to be actual claws, arranged around a wide gold necklace.

Shuri places it on one of her mannequins and taps her Kimoyo beads to it. Around the mannequin, a suit appears, nearly identical to the Black Panther suit in shape but far more decorated. The designs on T’Challa’s are only visible when his suit is charged but on this one it seems to be covered with markings like a leopard or jaguar and the mask marked with teeth in an imitation of a mouth.

“You like?” Erik smugly asks Bucky, arms folded over his chest.

“What were you doing with my suit? Punching boulders?” Shuri interrupts, looking at the fingers of the suit with a frown. “You managed to put microtears in the nanite mesh!”

“Blame your brother, he’s the one that takes a punch like a brick wall.” Erik complained, rubbing his knuckles slightly.

“Punch better then, I have not had to repair T’Challa’s suit once since he started wearing my new one but this second time you have damaged yours.” She ranted, waving her finger in his face.

“Just field testing it Princess and besides, first time wasn’t even my fault.” He smirked and boy did that set Shuri off.

Bucky watched them argue with a smile on his face, they way Shuri acted around her brothers reminding him of his own sisters. They’d probably be old ladies now, married with grandkids of their own.

Shuri’s threat of making the suit rainbow colored brought Bucky from his reminiscing and he decided, not for the first time, that Wakanda wasn’t all that bad a place to be.


	4. N'Jadaka

Bucky doesn’t learn the truth of Erik’s identity until much later, when Shuri is doing updates to their Kimoyo beads. Bucky’s and T’Challa’s are sitting on her worktable but Erik is there in person, his beads still on his wrist.

“He too important to take his off for you?” Bucky says teasingly once Erik is gone.

“He cannot.” She comments quietly and that is when Bucky realizes that something had always been off about Erik. How Dora Milaje had always accompanied him during his visits to Shuri. His comments about his beads being connected to hers. The way Bucky had seen some of the staff at the palace look at Erik like an outsider.

“He’s a prisoner.”

“Of a sort.” She admits, not looking up from his beads.

Bucky wants her to elaborate, to explain why a prisoner, even ‘of a sort’ is allowed to use one of her Panther suits. Why he is allowed to wander the palace of his own accord, as Bucky hadn’t seen a Dora Milaje guard with him outside of Shuri’s lab. How he had become a prisoner and what had he done to warrant imprisonment in the first place.

Shuri could be tight lipped when she wanted to be, despite her tendency to tell anyone who’d listen about her latest projects. He wasn’t sure she would elaborate, no matter how much he wanted her to.

The lab was quiet for a bit, Shuri’s normal music turned off for once. Slowly Shuri leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh. She set down the tool that was in her hand and looked out the window of the lab into the vastness of the Vibranium mines.

“When you realized your mind had been altered, what did you feel?” She finally asked.

The question caught him off-guard but the answer wasn’t hard to come up with. “Betrayal. I couldn’t trust myself to know what true anymore.”

“My father, was not a perfect man. A good King, yes. A good father, of course. But a perfect man, there is no such thing.”

The mention of T’Chaka had Bucky’s heart clenching in his chest. Even though he himself was not responsible for the former King’s death, a madman wearing his face had been, the smallest reminder of T’Chaka made Bucky feel guilty.

“My uncle N’Jobu was one of our war dogs. A spy trained to work outside of Wakanda. He decided that Wakanda was not doing enough to help the rest of the world and helped a man named Ulysses Klaue come into our borders and steal Vibrianim to be used for weaponry. Klaue detonated a bomb on the border and killed thousands of Wakandans. My father went to confront N’Jobu about his involvement and ended up killing him. My father did not know that N’Jobu had a son in America or if he did he did not bother to care about his nephew and left him behind.”

She stood from her seat and walked over to a worktable that had the top half of a spear resting on it. “No one in Wakanda ever knew of this until Erik arrived, dragging Klaue’s body with him. He claimed to be one of us and wanted to speak with the king. W’Kabi brought him to the High Council. He revealed himself as the son of N’Jobu and challenged T’Challa for the throne. It was within his birthright, just as it is in mine, so the challenge was held.”

She fell silent for a long time after that, holding the spear and running her fingertips on the flat of the Vibranium head. Bucky nearly spoke up to ask her to continue but finally she said two simple words.

“T’Challa fell.”

Later that evening, after Shuri had finished her entire story, Bucky found himself looking at the entire royal family in a new light. There had always been an interesting dynamic between who he had thought were the three siblings. Shuri and T’Challa far closer to each other than either were to Erik, but never did he think anything ill of it, siblings were naturally closer to each other. He himself had always been closer to Rebecca than the other girls. But to think what had happened to this family and that they still allowed Erik to sit at their dinner table and live in their home, that they were able to forgive him even just a little despite what he had done to their country, it was incredibly admirable. And it made him all the more thankful that such people like the Wakandans still existed in the world.


	5. Spar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really write fighting scenes all that often so sorry if it's a little lackluster.

Watching T’Challa and Erik spar was like watching nature in motion.

They would circle and test each other, getting a punch here or a kick there, never going all out. Their suits, when they wore them, slowly gaining more and more color as they absorbed the kinetic energy, storing it for later.

Suddenly, as if on an unspoken command, one would pounce on the other like the big cats that were their namesakes and all hell would break loose.

Bucky liked to watch them when he could, looking from the window of one of the sitting rooms in the palace that overlooked the training grounds. Shuri often sat with him, working on something on her tablet or reading a book. He caught her looking at him sometimes, looking at the loose sleeve of the tunic that hung at his side without an arm to fill it.

The arm she had built was fundamentally finished but she was still doing last touches to it and wanted it perfect before he even considered throwing a punch. On the days like today, after the King and the protector had retired from their training, Shuri would return to the lab with a renewed vigor in her, working tirelessly to finish Bucky’s arm so he could join them.

When the day finally came for him to be cleared to start training with the completed arm T’Challa had invited him to spar with he and Erik that afternoon. Bucky had politely declined, knowing how the two of them fought and preferring to get used to the arm before taking on the Black Panther or the Golden Jaguar, even in a spar. But he did still follow T’Challa down to the training area in the garden.

Bucky got to work on a punching bag hung from a sturdy tree while Erik and T’Challa began their dance, circling each other in the area set aside as a sparring ring. They’d elected to not use the suits today and instead were both shirtless and in loose boxing stances.

“C’mon cuz, gimme the best you got.” Erik taunted, muscles rippling underneath his scars. T’Challa lashed out with a kick in response, Erik’s arm coming up to block as they found their rhythm.

Hearing them fight was as much of a source of entertainment as watching them Bucky realized quickly. Erik’s tongue was sharp and full of taunts and teases that flowed from English to Xhosa without missing a beat. But T’Challa wasn’t the silent fighter Bucky had assumed him to be, easily making his own remarks and jabs at his cousin’s expense as though it was his first language.

Bucky didn’t understand all of them and generally tried to keep his chuckles to himself but even he couldn’t help himself when T’Challa claimed that Shuri could punch harder than Erik could.

“Something funny white boy?” Erik called across to him, a frown on his face.

Bucky turned to look at Erik, T’Challa watching carefully, his stance still that of a fighter, just in case Erik decided to turn his aggression elsewhere.

“You got something to say?” Erik asked again.

“Shuri has a mean left hook.” Bucky said, trying to keep the grin from his face.

While Erik seethed, T’Challa laughed harder than Bucky had ever seen the King laugh before. Of course this only enraged Erik further, being the type of man to take personal offence to anything said to him by an ‘outsider’ despite Bucky technically having been in Wakanda far longer that Erik himself had.

“Enough warm up, fight me like a man. Unless you’re still too broken to try.” Erik shouted, gesturing to himself with a smirk.

“N’Jadaka it is not your place!” T’Challa reprimanded but Bucky ignored him. Erik had always been judgmental of Bucky, since the day they had first met. Bucky had long ago realized that Erik was the kind of person that required people to prove themselves before he treated them as equals. It would only get worse if Bucky turned him down now.

Rolling his shoulders and flexing the fingers of the new metal hand, Bucky walked across the training yard to the sparring ring.

“You do not have to if you do not feel ready.” T’Challa assured him but Bucky shrugged.

“Was cleared to use it, may as well test it to the full extent. Shuri’ll want to know how it feels anyway.”

T’Challa stepped back to give them space as Bucky squared up in front of Erik.

“Show me whatchu got white boy.” Erik smirked, throwing the first punch.

Bucky did nothing but block at first, muscle memory coming back to him quickly with the adrenaline of a fight. Hit after hit contacted with his real arm, punches, kicks, Erik tried anything to get through Bucky’s guard.

“Fight back!” Erik demanded throwing a heavy punch.

In an instant he grunted in pain, his fist firmly held in the hand of Bucky’s Vibranium arm. Erik pulled back, clutching his knuckles. “I see what’chu doin. C’mon you used to be the Winter Soldier right, wheres he at?”

Bucky frowned and he saw T’Challa tense out of the corner of his eye, finger hovering over one of his Kimoyo beads, likely the one that supposedly knocked Erik out in an instant.

 _“Used to be, usurper.”_ Bucky said in flat unaccented Xhosa, grateful that he'd insisted learning the language as soon as he could. He wasn't fluent yet, not even close but he knew enough.

Erik’s eyes widened slightly and then a feline smirk spread across his face as he took his stance again, ignoring his bleeding knuckles.

 _“Princess teach you that?”_ Erik asked, throwing punch after punch.

 _“Taught myself. It’s what they call you isn’t it.”_ Bucky replied, catching Erik across the cheek with a kick.

 _“Yea, they do.”_ He grunted as he stumbled back. When he got his bearings again, a trickle of blood spilled from his newly split lip and T’Challa stepped between them.

“That is enough. N’Jadaka, go to the healers.”

He wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist and then looked at Bucky, loosely crossing one arm over his chest in a mock Wakandan salute, subtle smile on his face. “Next time, _White Wolf._ ”


	6. Shuri and T'Challa part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sibling fluff part 1

As far as Bucky is concerned, T’Challa and Shuri are the perfect example of siblings.

They fight, that’s for sure. Arguments about everything ranging from the Black Panther suit to how T’Challa is ruling as king. Most recently Bucky had witnessed them almost turn to physical violence when T’Challa walked in on Shuri showing Bucky a video that she supposedly had deleted.

“Wait for it…and Bam!” Shuri burst into laughter seeing T’Challa fly out of frame.

Bucky isn’t laughing but a smile had crossed his face and at this point in his recovery, that’s progress for him.

“What are you laughing about?” T’Challa says, walking into the lab.

“Nothing!” Shuri says quickly, swiping the video away with a wave of her fingertip.

“That better not be what I think it is.” T’Challa warns, eyes narrowing.

“I do not know what you are talking about.” Shuri says innocently. “I was just showing Bucky a funny cat video. We are working on happy memories and thoughts.” She explains, straining to keep the smile from her face at the accidental joke.

A suspicious smile quirks to T’Challa’s face before he leaps at Shuri like his mantles namesake grabbing her with one arm while the other goes to her side, fingertips poised to tickle her. “I thought I told you to delete that video sisi.”

“Bhuti!” She screeches through laughter as his fingers dig into her side. _“Fine I’ll delete it just stop tickling me!”_ she laughs, struggling against his grip.

 _“Do you promise?”_ He asks and Shuri nods, unable to speak through her giggles.

Finally T’Challa lets her go and says, “Delete it.”

“Okay okay, let me catch my breath for Bast’s sake.” Shuri replies, breathing heavily as she lifts her beads. A couple of taps and a swipe of her fingers pulls the video up, only for it to disappear in an instant.

“There. It is gone, nothing for you to worry about.” She assures him.

Later after T’Challa leaves the lab, Shuri looks to Bucky with a smug smile. She flicks her finger upwards and there is T’Challa flying across the lab in a pulse of purple kinetic energy.

“I am never deleting this video.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usisi-Sister  
> Ubhuti-Brother
> 
> I like to think they use them as affectionate nicknames for each other.
> 
> Edit 4/8/18 A commenter told me that grammatically when using Usisi and Ubhuti as nouns (ie when they say it to each other) they would be shortened to sisi and bhuti. The full words are used when speaking of them like "My Usisi" for example. I am correcting the fic to reflect that. Thank you Miss M for the help!


	7. Shuri and T'Challa part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sibling fluff part 2

Bucky wonders if he was as good a brother to his sisters as T’Challa is to Shuri.

It had been a week since he had been brought out of cryo and while Shuri assures him that the triggers aren’t there anymore, many of his memories are still hazy. He spends most of his days in her lab, the two of them staying up as long as possible just talking and getting to know each other. Shuri seemed to think that it would take something naturally occurring in conversation to trigger a memory, or at least that was how Bucky understood it. She had used far more words with far more letters.

Today had been another long day spent in the lab, he in the comfiest chair Wakanda had, and she working on his new arm. It had been giving her trouble for days now and Bucky could tell she was just about at her breaking point. She even snapped angrily at T’Challa like the pantheress she was when he came by to ask a question about the mines.

“What is going wrong sisi?” T’Challa asked when he returned later that day with a plate of some Wakanda sweetbread that reminded Bucky of doughnuts and a cup of coffee.

While Bucky’s memory may not be 100% yet, he does distinctly remember T’Challa coming by the lab five separate times that day, each time bringing a plate of snacks and a mug of a warm drink. He’d stay and just listen as Shuri explained whatever roadblock she had hit. Bucky could see on his face that T’Challa understood little more than Bucky himself, but the point was that talking it through out loud seemed to help her figure it out.

The fourth time T’Challa came, Bucky realized that it wasn’t a short walk between here and the capital, 15 minutes by ship at the least. And T’Challa stayed for some time when he came for each visits. Bucky didn’t know much about monarchies but could hazard a guess that Kings were busy people. Yet here T’Challa was.

The sun had set when T’Challa came the final time, a mug of tea and a blanket in his hands this time instead of a plate. Both Bucky and Shuri had fallen asleep mid conversation but Bucky jolted away at the sound of the door opening.

“It is only me.” T’Challa assured him with a kind smile that turned into something fond when his eyes fell on his sister asleep at her desk. He set the mug down and unfolded the blanket, draping it around Shuri before lifting her up with the ease of a familiar move. The Princess barely stirred in her brother’s arms.

“Come, the one thing this lab does not have is a comfortable bed. You can rest at the palace tonight and you can both continue your work in the morning."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 4/8/18 A commenter told me that I had made a grammatical mistake in my Xhosa so I have edited it to reflect that. See the notes on chapter 6 for more information.


	8. Bug Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its finally the Peter Parker chapter. The problem is, I am not great at writing romance or relationships of any kind so I generally avoid it. But I just love the thought of the two of them so I had to do something. So here's riot act Erik (and Bucky), shy teenage crushes with some protective/friendly Erik thrown in for good measure.

“Yo Barnes, whatchu up to?” Erik asks him one day when he comes by the river tribe village where Bucky had a hut of his own. Erik is seemingly in the middle of his border patrol, the Golden Jaguar necklace resting around his neck.

Bucky replied to the inquiry by holding up his book, some novel that had been popular in the years he had been frozen that Shuri had recommended.

“Man that’s lame, wizards and shit, white people nonsense. Come to the palace with me, I got an idea for something fun.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the border or something?” Bucky commented but Erik waved him off.

“Princess hooked my K-beads into her border detection systems. I’ll know if someone tries to come in. Now c’mon, we got shit to do.”

“What are we doing here?” Bucky asks as Erik directs the ship to land at Shuri’s lab.

“Starks in town with his kid prodigy.” He offers by way of explanation.

“Which is why I was away from the capital. So they didn’t find out I was here.” Bucky points out, still unsure what Erik is planning. He wouldn’t say he and Erik were friends per say, but they definitely weren’t enemies at this point. Bucky was still confused why Erik had gone out of his way to seek him out for whatever he had planned.

“T’Challa’s got Stark occupied but bug boy is out here with Shuri. What kind of big bros would we be if we left two teenagers alone.” Erik smirks, the gold tips on his teeth glinting in the sunlight coming through the window as he set the ship down.

“You want to terrorize the kid?”

“Nah, not terrorize. I ain’t that mean. Just, supervise.” He says and for some reason Bucky doesn’t quite believe him.

 _“Hey Princess”_ Erik calls into the lab when they enter and Bucky swears he can hear Shuri mutter a curse in Xhosa.

They come down the ramp and Shuri is surprisingly alone. She glares in confusion at Erik but the glare falls into worried confusion when she spots Bucky. _“What are you doing here?”_

“Just thought we’d check up on our favorite baby sister.” Erik says and Shuri’s eyes narrow in suspicion.

She looked to Bucky for an answer but he just shrugged and said _“His idea.”_

She sighs but says, “Peter you can come down, it’s just my cousin and, his friend.” She falters a bit as if trying to figure out how to refer to Bucky.

Bucky gives Erik a look that says ‘This is a bad idea’ but Erik just smiles confidently and walks over to Shuri’s worktable to see what she’s up to.

“Who's Peter?” He asks, poking at the familiar red bodysuit lying on the table.

In an instant, Bucky’s arm is pinned to the wall with a web of spider silk and a kid about Shuri’s age is shouting something about them being in danger. Bucky assumes this is Peter, the kid in the Spider-man suit.

“Yo kid, why you gotta be like this?” Erik says coolly, sauntering over and releasing Bucky’s arm with a swipe of his Jaguar claws.

Peter blinks in confusion but still seems on guard, arms out and ready to shoot more webs. “He’s the Winter Soldier! An international assassin responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people!”

Shuri opens her mouth to presumably defend Bucky and explain the situation but surprisingly Erik beats her to it.

“For real?” Erik says, looking at Bucky. “You think he’s some kind of super assassin or something?” He looks back to Peter “He was reading Harry Potter when I picked him up earlier, you think he’s gonna kill us all or something? Kid I think you’ve lost your mind if you think he’d hurt a fly. I’ve seen him let kids braid his hair full of flowers, would an assassin let that happen?”

Erik turned to stalk towards Peter, every inch a predator. “And if you ain’t got the respect to give someone the benefit of the doubt before you start flinging webs then I ain’t sure you should be talking to my sis over here.” Erik continued slinging an arm around Shuri’s shoulder.

“Ya see, we Wakandans be family and if you ain’t gonna respect my family then I ain’t sure you deserve my respect. You get what I’m sayin?”

To his credit, Peter stands his ground despite looking scared beyond belief. Erik cut an imposing figure for sure and the poor kid may be a hero in his own right, but Erik was in a league of his own.

After that little speech, Bucky decided the least he could do to repay Erik was to back him up in his little riot act and walked over to join him behind Shuri. “Look you scared the kid half to death. He’s just some kid from New York, Queens right?” Bucky said, looking at Peter.

Peter nodded, looking generally unsure about this whole encounter.

“Brooklyn” Bucky said with a little nod.

“Ya’ll are New Yorkers? No wonder I barely tolerate you.” Erik teased, looking at Bucky.

“Where are you from then?” Peter asks, finally finding his voice.

“None of your business white boy.” Erik snaps, shutting Peter up instantly.

“Why are you in my lab?” Shuri says to try and change the focus. She looked directly at Erik, blaming him without a second guess.

 _“As far as I understand, he wanted to scare the kid.”_ Bucky explains with an amused smile.

Shuri gives an audible sigh and rolls her eyes before looking at Peter. “Sorry about them. What were we working on?”

“C’mon cuz, you just gonna ignore us like that?” Erik asks, his arm around her in a half hug.

“Unless you have something that needs my attention, otherwise yes.” She replies with a patronizing smile.

Bucky stifles a chuckle but Erik relents. “Fine we’ll leave y’all alone.” He says, pulling away and turning towards the door. “But no funny business. Or else we both gonna go nuclear on your ass kid.”

Peter gulps with a bright blush on his cheeks, the color mirrored by Shuri. “Of course not sir. I wouldn’t sir.”

“Course not kid, I’m just messin with’cha.”

As they leave, Bucky hears Shuri say, “Promise you won’t tell Tony. Bucky is doing very well here with us. He is basically himself again. None of HYDRAs programming is left” he wants to linger to hear the rest but Erik is already striding up the ramp of the ship.

“Why did you ask me to come with you?” Bucky asks once they are in the air and headed back towards the River tribe.

“You’re scary looking man, kid wasn’t just scared of me.”

“Is that it?” Bucky asks, admittedly a little upset if that was the only reason.

“Well at this point you’re basically her family anyway. And its like I said, Wakandans are family. Wouldn’t have been half as fun if you got left out. Wish it coulda been all three of us, kid woulda shit himself if T’Challa was there to but was still pretty funny. Besides just cuz you ain’t got the lip tat, don’t mean you’re not Wakandan.”

“Thank you Erik.”

“Wakandans call me N’Jadaka.”


	9. Shuri and T'Challa part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sibling fluff part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, thank you guys so much for such lovely comments on this so far. I've been trying to limit my posting to a chapter a day but I was just so happy about the response I've been getting I just wanted to post another. 
> 
> This is a little shorter than some of the others but I still think its cute. 
> 
> I've got three more chapters fully written and fourth in the works but as long as I keep getting ideas for this I'm not stopping so if anyone has any little prompts of scenarios they'd like to see feel free to let me know!

T’Challa finally gets his revenge on Shuri almost a month after Shuri had pronounced Bucky fully cured.

Bucky was sparing with Erik out in the training yard when T’Challa comes sprinting out of the palace with a smile on his face. Shuri is hot on his heels, the power of the heart-shaped herb being the only thing really giving him the edge.

“Delete it!” Shuri shouts. “Delete the video T’Challa!”

“Why would I do that sisi? You have been so kind to keep the video of me safe, I am only returning the favor.” T’Challa says, coming to a stop on the other side of the sparring ring, Bucky and Erik between he and Shuri.

He and Shuri dance back and forth with the other two as a confused barrier between them.

“Besides it is a very flattering video, I am sure the entire world would agree with me.”

T’Challa smirks. “You post that anywhere and the suit turns hot pink!” She threatened and while Bucky knows T’Challa is far too nice to do anything with whatever video he has, Shuri’s threat is very real. The last time he had crossed her, T’Challa’s suit had ‘magically’ gained the ability to be transparent everywhere except where it was vital.

“I don’t think I want to be in the middle of this.” Erik says, taking a step back. Shuri takes the chance to tackle T’Challa and wrestle for his Kimoyo beads.

“Aha!” She exclaims victoriously, pulling them from his hand and jumping off of him before running off out of his reach. T’Challa remained on the ground, laughing too hard to get up.

“What the hell was that about?” Erik asks as he helps T’Challa up after Shuri has gone back inside.

Through his waning chuckles, T’Challa manages to say “I sent you both the video before she noticed me.”

Curiously, both men swipe to the video message from T’Challa.

The video begins abruptly, showing Shuri in her bedroom. T’Challa is presumably watching from the doorway as Shuri is blasting Beyoncé from her speakers. The teenage princess is singing into an imaginary microphone as she dances around her room. “Girls, we run this motha, girls! Who run the world? Girls! Who run the world? Girls! Who run the world? Girls!” T’Challa’s hand wavers a little as he starts to laugh quietly, the video barely picking up the sound over the music. She gets through another verse before opening her eyes and spotting T’Challa. The video cuts off abruptly as Shuri starts toward her brother with a threatening look on her face.

“She’s going to make the suit pink when she realizes you sent it to us.” Bucky says with a small smile.

“And it will be entirely worth it.” He said with a smile, straightening his tunic. “Could one of you please contact Okoye and tell her I will be late to the meeting. It seems I have to retrieve my Kimoyo beads from where ever Shuri has hidden them.”

“I bet if we sent this to Beyoncé she’d totally give Shuri tickets to her next show.” Erik says with a mischievous look once T’Challa is gone.

“You just want him to have a pink suit don’t you?” Bucky questions with an amused smile.

“More than anything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 4/8/18 A commenter told me that I had made a grammatical mistake in my Xhosa so I have edited it to reflect that. See the notes on chapter 6 for more information.


	10. White Wolf

_‘Ingcuka’_ the children of the River tribe called him. White Wolf it meant in Xhosa.

When he first moved to the River tribelands Shuri refused to tell him what it meant so he had assumed it was an insult of some kind, children being scared of what was different and didn’t look like them. When the adults began to call him by that name it only reinforced the assumption. Except they never said it with disdain or disgust. They never said it like a slur the way he had occasional heard when he was a child, some Americans had been just as anti-semetic as Nazis even before the war.

He asked Shuri again but she still refused. “It is motivation to learn Xhosa more quickly.” She would say with a taunting smile.

She’d been right, along with the desire to be able to speak with the villagers around him, he did want to know what his ‘name’ meant.

Slowly and with help from the Queen Mother Ramonda of all people, he learned enough Xhosa to be conversastional. His reading ability wasn’t quite there but he could speak it well enough. However, she to refused to tell him what Ingcuka meant.

“It is a name given by the River Tribe for you, it is them who you will have to ask.” But the way she said with an almost proud smile gave him hope.

Shuri was out of the country for a week with T’Challa, the two of them working on the outreach program in America. Erik had gone with them as well to see the progress with his own eyes. This left Bucky to his own devices. Normally he would have used the time to catch up on his reading or train to get himself back to fighting shape but today he ventured to the hut of the Cheifteness of the village.

 _“Amandi may I speak with you?”_ The woman’s face lit up in a kind smile and she gestured for him to enter.

 _“Ingcuka, you have been studying your Xhosa.”_ She said with a proud smile, enunciating and speaking slow enough to give him a chance to understand.

He nodded with a slight smile and sat down across from her on a brightly colored rug. Amandi was an older woman, the mother to several members of the tribe as well as this villages representive in the Capital city. While Bucky considered the Royal family, Shuri in particular to be the ones who cared most closely for his health and well-being, Amandi was almost grandmotherly to him within the village.

 _“I wished to be able to speak with you and others in your own language.”_ He explained.

 _“You speak well.”_ She assured him. _“Why have you come? What is troubling you?”_

_“Thank you, I was studying with the Queen Mother and she would not tell me what that name means. You all call me Ingcuka but she said I should ask your people what it means.”_

Amandi smiled widely and laughed to herself. _"Oh child, have no fear. It is not an insult. The children call you that because you remind them of a legendary warrior of Wakandan stories. A man with pale skin unlike anyone of our country, who fought alongside the Black Panther. We called him Ingcuka,_  White Wolf.”

“White Wolf.” He repeated and she nodded.

_“The White Wolf was powerful, strong enough to fight at the side of the Black Panther without the Heart-Shaped herb that gives him his strength. The children hear stories of many warriors and when they saw you they believed you to be the White Wolf. So do not take offense my friend, be proud.”_

Later when he returned to his own hut near the waters edge, he sat outside listening to the sounds of the village and the country. A trio of children came running to him, shouting “Ingcuka!” before playfully tackling him. They spoke too fast for his only moderate Xhosa to translate but this time he knew it was with no ill will or mocking that they spoke.

To the Wakandans, he had never been the Winter Soldier. Now he never would be again. The Winter Soldier was dead and gone. A nightmare of the past. He could and gladly would be the White Wolf, even if only in the minds of the children.

Maybe when Shuri returned he could ask for a suit to match T’Challas?


	11. Change

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“You worry too much! You are cured Bucky. Nothing left but for you to do but remember and learn how things have changed.” She assured him, hoisting a backpack onto her shoulder.

“Part of your recovery is learning how to integrate into society again. You have done well in the Palace with us but the capital is far too much for you to handle right now. The people of the River tribe are very welcoming. You can relax and take your time getting back into the swing of living around other people.”

His gut fear of abandonment reared its ugly head once more as she spoke. He knew logically he wouldn’t be alone. The point was for him to be around people that wouldn’t judge or be afraid of him. And he knew he had no reason to worry about not being wanted, Shuri even expected him to get tired of her spending time with him with how often she planned to come by. But part of him was still fearful enough that it made him wary.

Shuri’s Kimoyo beads beeped and she looked at them in confusion, taping and swiping until her features softened slightly. She looked back up at him and then back at her beads.

“I will be right back.” She stepped over to the other side of the ship, not even taking notice as it landed lightly on the ground. She was speaking in rapid but soft Xhosa to her mother.

He tried to give her privacy, its not like he knew what they were saying, but he still was staring at the small hologram of the Queen as she nodded and smiled at the Princess. She tapped away and then walked back over, grabbing a duffle bag of supplies and passing it to him.

“What are you waiting for, lets get going.” She said with an excited smile, leading the way down the ramp.

They spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting his hut set up for comfort. Shuri kept glancing at her beads and would occasionally converse quickly with one of the villagers. He was confused and more than a little suspicious but in the end he trusted her so he wasn’t too worried.

As night fell, another ship landed near the village while they ate dinner around a large communal campfire. Shuri leapt up from the ground and ran over, greeting the Dora Milaje that had arrived. Bucky watched the warrior hand over a large bag with a smile before saluting and going back onto the ship.

“What are you doing?” Bucky asked as Shuri set the bag down inside his hut.

“I am helping with your recovery.” She said with a smile.

“I don’t understand.”

“Your heart rate has been elevated ever since we arrived out here and spiked when you were thinking about it on the ship. As your dedicated caretaker I am responsible for your health and sanity so I will stay with you until you feel comfortable.” There was a gentle smile on her face as she spoke.

If he hadn’t spent so much time with her so far, he wouldn’t have even picked up on the kindness behind the somewhat clinical explanation. Shuri was funny in the way she melded her speech, a mixture of analytical and empathetic.

“You don’t have to. I’m capable of being here on my own. I’m used to changing places and going to new places.”

“It is different for you now though. You do not have to do it alone. So I will stay until you are comfortable. No arguing.” She smiled before disappearing to unpack her stuff.

With an amused sigh he followed her into the hut, remembering what it was like to have people care about him.


	12. Golden Jaguar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My headcanon is that Erik and Bucky would be best friends once Bucky isn't a brainwashed murder robot and when Erik gets over his 'I just want to watch the world burn' phase.

Twice the Golden Jaguar caught intruders while Bucky was with him.

Soon after the (first) Peter Parker incident, Erik starts inviting Bucky to patrol the province of Wakanda known as the Riverlands with him. At first Bucky is reluctant, he trusted Erik and he knew Erik at least somewhat liked him, but seeing someone while they are working is always going to be a different experience than seeing them informally. Erik’s job was to protect the border of Wakanda and stop any and all intruders from entering. Bucky just wasn’t quite sure how working with the Golden Jaguar might be different than sparring with Erik Stevens.

Despite his reservations Bucky did come to enjoy these patrols. Wakanda was great and everyone in it was great but in the end Bucky was American and had missed a lot during his time away. He found that common thread with Erik. Both were homesick in a way and it helped them both for Erik to tell Bucky all about America. His thoughts were pretty biased Bucky realized quickly, but it was better than nothing. Sure he had the Internet to look things up and call him old-fashioned but hearing it from someone in person just seemed better.

“World-Series started yesterday. They have that when you were around?” Erik is telling him as they wander their way along the border of the Riverlands.

“They did. I’m not that old. And I thought you weren’t a sports guy?”

“M’not, but this ain’t about me, and all you old army types loved baseballs ‘ccording to the history books.” Erik says giving him a smirk.

“Is that anyway to talk to your elders?” Bucky teases back and Erik scoffs out at chuckle.

Suddenly though he stills and falls silent, hand out in front of Bucky to stop him. They were walking along the banks of the large river that gave the Riverlands their name. Erik crouches and stalks towards the waters edge, hidden among reeds and river grass. Bucky follows, half a step behind him, his guard up and ready for anything.

They peer through the reeds and there on the water is a large boat. At first Bucky thinks Erik had been overreacting, it seemed to be Wakandan and the men on it dressed in Wakandan clothes. Until one of them turns, showing the assault rifle he is holding. Bucky swears he can hear Erik growl.

Erik’s suit is on in an instant, the Vibranium fabric a spotted second skin. “I’m going ahead where the river narrows, get across as soon as you’re outta their sight. We’ll catch ‘em from both sides.” Bucky nods and then Erik is gone, his suit designed to camouflage with the grasses and foliage of Wakanda.

The next fifteen minutes are a reminder of the tense adrenaline rush he had felt as the Winter Soldier. It was how he imagined Erik felt all the time, the feeling of a predator stalking its prey.

They catch the intruders at the bend of the river, Bucky arriving just in time to see Erik leap from a cliff and land on the boat. He takes one of the men out with brutal efficiency and the aid of the surprise attack. The others have more time to react, unloading their weapons at the Golden Jaguar. The suit begins to glow gold with its charged kinetic energy and then the remaining men are flying towards the opposite shore where Bucky is waiting.

T’Challa had given Erik a very strict set of rules when he had given his cousin the job as the protector. The first rule was that death was the final resort. Only after every other option, including diplomacy had been attempted would he be allowed to consider killing. The circumstances were somewhat altered when weaponry was involved but the end result was always to be the same. Incapacitate all but one intruder and question the one who remained. It was the council’s decision to pass justice, not the protectors.

“Why are you in these lands?” The Golden Jaguar demanded, hoisting the man into the air by his collar. Bucky now held his rifle and had it trained on the intruder as more of an intimidation factor than an actual threat but the man didn’t need to know that.

The intruder spat in his face and in an instant Erik had knocked him out as well. He drops the unconscious body and moves to contact the Dora Milaje to pick the men up. As is his protocol.

Things start off much the same the next time Bucky is around to help Erik.

Again there are men on a boat with guns, traveling on the river. Except this time, it is not just them. There are women on the boat with them, sitting in the center with their hands bound and heads bowed in fear.

This time Bucky has to stop the Golden Jaguar from killing the men. This time Bucky nearly loses an eye from a swipe of Vibranium claws in an adrenaline fueled fury. This time Bucky nearly considers using the bead on his Kimoyo bracelet that Shuri had given him as a ‘just in case’ when he started spending more time alone with Erik.

 _“N’Jadaka! Calm down!”_ Bucky shouts, the Golden Jaguar’s spear poised at the neck of one of the traffickers. _“They’re down. You need to stop!”_ Bucky sees Erik’s grip on the spear tighten, the tip wavering dangerously at the man’s jugular. Tense silence passes for a few moments and then his grip loosens and his weapon is pulled back. He leans down to say something to the trafficker and then the man is passed out on the ground in a quick hit to a pressure point.

Later that night when Bucky is alone in his hut he thinks about the stories he’d heard from T’Challa and from Shuri about what they referred to as the ‘Killmonger’ incident. Shuri’s views had been very cynical but T’Challa’s had not been as much so. He’d seen past the façade of a conqueror to see that Killmonger’s wish for his people to be free had not been so misplaced, just his methods of achieving this goal.

Bucky figured that T’Challa had taken Erik’s hatred for seeing his people subjugated into account when he had sentenced the traffickers to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. And that he had seen the somewhat satisfied expression on Erik’s face watching the men be marched off in the Wakandan equivalent of chains. That he had not chosen to punish Erik himself despite the close call.

Healing was a complicated process and forgiveness even more so but it seemed Wakanda was able to foster both where it was needed most. 


	13. Cubs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter was kind of serious, have some more Bucky and Shuri brotp fluff!

Bucky thinks he knows everything he needs to know about Wakanda by this point.

He knows their language. He knows about their clothes and food. He knows much of their basic history. He knows about their technology. The best part about having nothing more to learn is that he is able to settle into a comfortable routine. He enjoys routines. After the shitshow that has been his life up to this point, a calm, simple routine is exactly what he needs.

Until Shuri comes to his hut one day and breaks his routine.

“Come on. I have something to show you.”

“I’m supposed to meet with Erik to do his patrol in the Riverlands.”

“Well, I am kidnapping you. Lets go white boy.” She says with a smile, walking onto the ship.

Unsurprisingly she takes the controls and while he is familiar with much of the country now, she starts towards an area he has not yet been.

“Whose tribelands are these?” He asks as they fly over a small mountain, a large canopy of jungle trees spreading out below them.

“These lands are for all of Wakanda but it is invite only to go where I am taking you.” She smiles.

He expects a hologram, like the one that covers the capital of Wakanda, a covering of fake jungle vegetation keeping some technological marvel hidden from the outside world. Instead there is a small clearing that Shuri expertly lands in. It looks unassuming, he thinks, as they descend the ship.

 _“Welcome Princess”_ a woman greets them, her arms crossed in a Wakandan salute. She turns to Bucky and says, “Welcome to Indawo.”

“What is this place?” Bucky asks as the woman leads them into the jungle along a well-trodden path.

“It is a project of my mothers, a sanctuary.” Shuri explains, tapping at something on her Kimoyo beads.

“What kind of sanctuary?” The jungle gives way once more to a clearing; the sky is hidden by leaves of the jungle trees but this time they seem to be unnatural, instead made of the type of hologram he had come to expect. The sight of a dozen panther cubs rushing towards the fence that encircles the clearing answers his question immediately.

“Cubs” He says in astonishment.

“All orphaned.” The woman explains, turning her attention to the cubs and beckoning them away from the gate with a fond motherly tone.

Shuri smiles at Bucky and follows the women into the complex.

“The Panthers are native to Wakanda. We try to help them all but there are many circumstances out of our control. These cubs are either brought to us or found. We raise them and then release them back into the jungle.”

Bucky wants to look around but is distracted by the clambering of paws and flicking of tails against his legs. The cubs are as big as the German Shepard puppy his parents got when he moved out of their house way back when. He doesn’t know how old they are but one rears back to stand against him and its paws are halfway up his thigh. They remind him of puppies, with their excitement and too big paws that they haven’t quite grown into yet.

The woman whistles and the cubs attention is gone, all dozen of them running towards the building where she had a large bowl filled with meat.

“I’ll show you around.” Shuri offers.

They walk around the complex for several hours; Shuri telling him as much as she knows about it and about all her time spent her as a child. No one really had pets in Wakanda he realized, the way she spoke made it seem like this had been her equivalent.

They stop to have lunch at a picnic table in the yard, the cubs napping in the mottled sunlight around them.

“I developed a special hologram for them. All of Wakanda knows of this place but its location is secret. If someone needs to contact them they simply call and one of the workers goes to them. We do not want it to be an attraction. It is a place for the babies to learn to be what they are. We are lucky that Bast favors them already so much, that their instincts are strong and that they have no predators in our borders.”

Suddenly Shuri is on the ground in a blur of black and Bucky is on his feet ready to fight but she starts laughing and he hesitates.

 _“Omhle don’t scare me like that!”_ Omhle is apparently the panther, an adult, currently pinning her to the ground and rubbing its face against hers.

 _“Yes I missed you to. Now let me up.”_ Reluctantly the panther steps back and Shuri sits up, her hand scratching behind its ears.

Shuri sees Bucky’s confused look and laughs. “Did you think you had lost me to a panther attack?” She teases. “Omhle is like a mother to these cubs. She was one of them once. When I used to come as a child she would follow me around like a baby chick as if I was the mother she did not have. She cannot have cubs of her own for some reason, despite our veterinarians trying to help her, so she helps raise these cubs.”

One of the cubs comes over to Omhle and bumps and paws at her, trying to get her attention so the older panther saunters off to tend to her ‘babies’ while Shuri sits back down at the table.

“If you would like I can arrange for you to help them with the cubs and the whole facility.” She says casually.

“You have a motive.” He says with a suspicious look. “I know you well enough now to know when you have something up your sleeve.”

She poked at her lunch and said “Amandi told me you seemed troubled, that you felt like you did not have a purpose in Wakanda anymore. I wanted to find something that you could do that you would find enjoyment with. You do so well with the children, I figured the cubs were not much different.”

Bucky’s expression softened “Thank you Shuri. I will gladly help wherever my help is needed, no matter where it is. I’ve always been a cat-person anyway.”


	14. Beyoncé

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of people wanted to see the aftermath of T'Challa's revenge so here's a little something related to that. It's a little short so I might do a part 2 for this but we'll see.

The entire palace rushes to her rooms when they hear Shuri scream.

“Shuri!” T’Challa shouts bursting through her door with Bucky and Erik right on his heels.

The Princess is sitting in her bed staring at the holographic screen projected from her Kimoyo beads. Twitter is pulled up and she looks astonished.

“What is going on!” T’Challa demands, fearing the worst about what may have caused her to scream.

“Beyoncé DM’d me!” She yelled excitedly.

The room fell deadly silent before there were a number of relieved sighs. The Dora Milaje that had come to protect their princess returned back to their posts and the other staff that had come out of worried fear left the room to give the royal family (and its two additions) privacy.

“What are you talking about?” T’Challa asks slowly, still trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

“Look!” Shuri says with a smile, expanding the screen to be big enough for all of them to see.

“You’re on Twitter?” Erik asks immediately, looking at Shuri.

“Of course I am. I am on everything but that is not the point, look she wants me to be in her next music video! She says that she saw how much I enjoyed her music and would be honored if I could come to New York to be part of the filming.” She paused for a moment and looked directly at T’Challa.

“Bhuti, how does she know I enjoy her music?” She asked, narrowing her eyes at the King. “I deleted that video myself. And I know for a fact you are not on Twitter.”

“I had nothing to do with it sisi.” T’Challa said quickly, his hands up in a placating gesture.

They began to argue in Xhosa, too fast for Bucky to really follow. He did however pick up the words “Pink Panther” from Shuri.

Several weeks later Shuri arrives in New York, texting Peter to let him know she is in town. And that their plan had worked. She would get to meet Beyoncé thanks to a tweet from some random high schooler named Peter Parker tweeting a video and the world would get to meet the Pink Panther when Spider-man caught him on video during the trip to New York.

@TechnoPrincess tweeted “Who run the world?” attached was a picture of Shuri and Beyoncé doing the Wakandan salute in front of the Statue of Liberty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 4/8/18 A commenter told me that I had made a grammatical mistake in my Xhosa so I have edited it to reflect that. See the notes on chapter 6 for more information.


	15. Shuri and T'Challa part 4

The first time Bucky sees Shuri and T’Challa interact he gets a headache from the memories that resurface.

He had only been out of Cryo for a few days and had spent all of his time in Shuri’s lab, Shuri herself only leaving to sleep and even then only if she remembered to do so instead of passing out on one of the cots.

Bucky wakes up to the sounds of off key singing coming from the main lab room, interspersed with laughter from both a man and a women. Slowly he stands, minding the warning of being light-headed for the first few days before going to investigate.

When he peers around the doorframe he sees Shuri and the King, T’Challa if he remembers the name correctly. He is in the middle of the room, wearing the Black Panther suit from the neck down while Shuri runs her scanner all around him.

The part that catches him off guard is how they’re both loudly singing along to some song in the native language. T’Challa is dancing in place but Shuri keeps having to stop what she is doing because he is moving so she makes some teasing comment in the language Bucky doesn’t understand and swatting at her brother to keep him still.

It makes Bucky think of the times he would take Becca to the dance clubs when she wasn’t yet old enough to go alone. He would go to supervise her but she would always end up asking him to dance with her. He never told her but it was thanks to her that he was so good at swing dancing when he went to the clubs with Steve later on.

Suddenly he had an aching pain in his head so strong it made him stumble to grab the doorway for support. The sound of which grabs the attention of the royal siblings.

“Bucky, are you alright?” Shuri asked as she rushed over to help him stand.

“You weren’t kidding bout the headaches.” He grits out, wishing he could put a hand to his temple but he’s still down one arm right now.

“At least it means your memory is returning.” She said with an apologetic smile, helping him to walk to a chair nearby.

She says something to her brother and the King leaves the room for a few moments, coming back with a glass of water and a pill. Shuri snaps something at T’Challa in their language that sounds remarkably similar to when Becca had called him an idiot for something, despite being in a whole different language, the tone stayed the same.

She hands him the water but not the pill “I do not want to give you any medication until I am sure the nerves in your brain are fully recovered. Just in case your body does not react well.” Her tone is full of pity and he just waves it off. He’d had plenty of time to get his pain tolerance up without pain medication, this was nothing compared to some of the things he’d endured so far.

“Rather have this than to undo all your work.”

“I doubt it would be that dramatic but it is still better to be safe than sorry as the expression goes.”

T’Challa puts his hand on her shoulder to get her attention _“I will return later. Mother expects you for dinner, both of you if he feels up for it.”_ He crosses his arms over his chest as the suit dissipates and Shuri returns the gesture with a smile.

_“We’ll be there, promise.”_

“If you do not mind me asking, what did you remember?” She asked once T’Challa was gone.

“I had a sister, she was about your age when I enlisted. I used to take her to the dancing clubs because our mother said she was too young to go by herself.” It felt good to share his memories, despite Shuri still being almost a stranger. He felt comfortable around her.

“We have some time before dinner. Do you want to tell me about her?” She suggested, moving to grab her tablet.

He spent the rest of the day telling her everything he could recall about Becca and what it was like being her older brother and growing up in New York. There were some gaps in his memory and it worried him that he couldn’t remember simple things like her birthday but she assured him that these things took time. It was scary to think there were so many missing memories but he trusted her and her abilities. This time his mind would be fixed for good.


	16. Unexpected Consequences of the Wakandan Outreach program part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To celebrate 5000 hits and 300 kudos (the most on anything I’ve ever written, on any platform has every received) have a two part mini plot!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read, commented and bookmarked this story. It really means a lot to me!

Bucky wants to believe the story the Parker kid tells them. That they had been jumped and their guards knocked out while getting into the car Shuri had been given for the duration of her time in New York. Wants to believe that Peter had fought valiantly against the aggressors but had ultimately been overpowered. But over a year spent with Shuri had taught him that when it mattered, the Princess never lied.

She’d convinced Peter and his friend Michelle to take her to a club, a proper American dance club like she saw in the films. He had refused initially but Shuri could be a persuasive thing when she really wanted to be. It had started fine, just teens breaking easy to break laws with a fake ID and a smile, but then Shuri had lost them in the crowd and it had gone downhill from there.

“If May finds out we’re here she’s gonna kill me!” Peter said, nearly having to shout over the rhythmic thrumming of the music in the clubs.

“Oh come on Peter, she’s never been to a club, let her live.” Michelle said with a smirk, simultaneously disgusted with the whole concept of this club but also excited to see the Princess get her chance.

“Yeah, let me live!” Shuri smiled. “Going to use that one next time T’Challa argues with me.” She adds giving Michelle a high-five.

“I’m going to regret introducing you two.” Peter muttered, causing Shuri to laugh and kiss his cheek before grabbing Michelle’s hand and disappearing into the crowd.

Peter finds them later, thank god for Spider-senses, dancing with drinks in hand. He had vowed to be the responsible one but Shuri smiles at him and gives him a pleading look with those eyes and he’s done for. Soon enough he’s buzzed and he thinks they both are to. He’s having a better time than he thought he would but maybe it’s because Shuri keeps taking his hands to spin her around, laughing as he does.

He has no idea what time it is or how long they’d been there when she goes to the bathroom, leaving him behind with Michelle and a promise of “I will be right back.”

She doesn’t come back for some time and he starts to worry but Michelle assures him lines for girl’s bathrooms are always long. She’ll be back eventually. Except she doesn’t. And she doesn’t. And she doesn’t. Michelle looks towards the bathroom and then back at Peter. “I’ll go find her.”

Michelle comes back a few minutes later, brows knitted in worry. She gives Peter a look and they go to find somewhere quiet. He tries to contact Shuri with the phone she’d given him that connected to her Kimoyo Beads but there is no reply. He leaves a message and then texts her one just to be sure.

“I should call T’Challa.” Peter says quietly. “He’s going to kill me but I should tell him.”

“Don’t! At least not yet, you’ll only worry him. She’s smart, like literally the smartest person in the world, she’s probably on the dance floor and just can’t find us.” Michelle said with what seemed like faux confidence.

Peter’s phone suddenly rang and he scrambled to pick it up “Shuri where are you?”

It wasn’t the Princess who answered, “The Princess is in our hands. You will contact the King of Wakanda. If he ever wants to see her again he must provide us with 3 tons of Vibranium and all of Wakandas design plans. He has 72 hours to comply or the Princess will be killed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two coming tomorrow (Or later today if I am too excited to wait)


	17. Unexpected Consequences of the Wakandan Outreach program part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And as promised here is part 2

“I am not mad Shuri.” Ramonda had said when she had asked what had happened to lead to the kidnapping. “I wish to know what happened so that it does not happen again.” Her voice was calm and she may not be mad, but T’Challa had not stopped pacing since the ship had taken off from New York to return to Wakanda. Erik looked like he wanted to stab someone and Bucky? Bucky’s heart had not stopped racing since Parker had contacted them and explained the situation with a wavering voice.

Shuri fiddled with her Kimoyo beads, surprisingly calm despite having been kidnapped less than 24 hours ago.

“I convinced them to take me to a club, like from the American movies. We had been there for a while and I left them to go to the bathroom. When I came out a man was following me so I tried to get away from him. I did not realize he was trying to push me to his accomplices. They drugged me and I woke up in a warehouse, tied to a chair.”

 

The world was hazy when she opened her eyes. She was cold and her head hurt immensely “Peter what happened?” She asked. “Good morning Princess.” Her eyes snapped open in an instant at the unfamiliar voice. A large man dressed in black with a gun strapped to his hip sauntered out of the shadows and over to her. “Those magic beads of yours have been ringing off the hook seems like someone is very eager to contact you.” He grabbed his gun and pointed it at her while untying one of her hands.

“Be a good girl and answer those messages. Try anything funny and I shoot.”

In all her lessons with Mama and Baba, they had never talked about what to do if she was ever kidnapped. It had been unthinkable for anyone to even get into Wakanda and they hadn’t considered that one day she might go somewhere without a guard that might be dangerous. But if there was one thing Shuri was, it was clever. She just had to figure out a way to tell T’Challa she was in trouble and he could do the rest.

She tapped the communication bead and Peter’s voice came out of it “Hey Shuri, not sure where you went but Michelle and I are getting worried. We’re over by the bar where it is a little quieter. Let me know if you get this.” The text from him said much the same thing.

Silently she looked up at her captor. He smirked and gestured with his gun “Let’s call him back then.”

She tapped through to call Peter, warily glancing at her captor.

 **“Shuri where are you?”** Peter answered without so much as a hello.

Her captor smirked at her and said, “The Princess is in our hands. You will contact the King of Wakanda. If he ever wants to see her again he must provide us with 3 tons of Vibranium and all of Wakandas design plans. He has 72 hours to comply or the Princess will be killed.” Peter tried to speak up but her captor demanded she end the call before Peter could get more than a word in.

The moment the message clicked off the man tried to take off her beads but the bio-lock she had designed held firm and they would not budge. “Take them off.” He ordered, the gun pointed between her eyes.

“He cannot give you the plans. The Vibranium yes but not the plans.” She said quickly.

“And why is that Princess?” The man asked condescendingly, a smile on his face. “I think he happily will if he wants his sister back in one piece and not with your pretty head blown all over the wall.”

“He will not refuse but he literally cannot give them to you because they are all digital and stored in this.” She said, shaking her beads.

His eyes narrowed “Then we’ll take them.”

“You already tried that. They are bio-locked to me. I am the only one who can use them.” She said, rolling her eyes.

Her beads lit up purple and he said, “Answer it.” She rolled her eyes again but swiped open the call.

“I will see her before we begin to discuss your terms.” T’Challa’s stern tone came from the beads.

“Of course your highness, she’s unharmed.” He said sardonically, but gestured for Shuri to make the demand happen.

A screen opened up displaying T’Challa sitting in his throne. She could imagine that everyone else was behind the screen, listening in.

“Bhuti” Shuri said quietly.

“English.” Her captor spat, putting the barrel of the gun against the side of her head.

She could see T’Challa’s features tense and he calmly said, “We will provide the Vibranium but cannot give you the designs.”

“She said as much. You see, my employer has his eyes on a few specific designs. He wanted the plans but seeing as your clever little technobitch of a sister locked them to her, we’ll just take her instead.” She could see his smirk in the small second screen of the video call but her eyes were on T’Challa’s.

 _‘Think bhuti. You are smart. I have the beads. Come find me.’_ She wanted to say. He knew about the tracking function. She knew he did. For a split second she thought she saw the background of the video flicker and T’Challa’s eyes met hers. If she didn’t know any better she would think that he background was a hologram. She looked at T’Challa with very subtle confusion, her eyebrows knitting together ever so slightly. ‘What are you up to bhuti?’ She tried to convey. He gave her a knowing look in reply. He had a plan and it was already in motion.

“I will unlock them.” She said, her eyes not leaving T’Challa’s. “I will unlock them and explain all I can. Just let me go.” She said, turning to meet her captor’s eyes.

“Fine Princess, but he’s still giving us the Vibranium.” He said with a confident smirk. “I will contact you with a location to meet us your highness.”

“I will be okay bhuti.” Shuri said before ending the call.

‘Okay Shuri, buy as much time as you can. Talk them in circles. You are smarter than them. Buy the time for T’Challa to get here.’

“I will need to be untied if you want me to teach you.”

He laughed, “C’mon princess, you think you can teach us anything? Just give us the plans and translate your language.”

She looked at him incredulously “You do realize these are all plans of my own design? They are years more advanced than anything you could even think of. So yes, I will be teaching you.”

“I should shoot you for mouthing off at me like that bitch.” He said, cocking his gun.

“You would be out of the plans and the Vibranium, not to mention the entire nation of Wakanda wanting you dead.” She said confidently.

A tense silence fell over the room before the man practically growled in anger and pulled away. “Fine princess. Have it your way. But just know I have men all around this building with the order to kill you if you so much step a toe in the direction of a door.”

“I had just barely scratched the surface of what made Vibranium unique when you three showed up.” She said, glancing towards where Erik was leaning against the wall, Bucky was sat in a chair and T’Challa was pacing in front of his throne.

Boy had that been something out of a movie, the three of them stepping out of the shadows like wraiths of the night. T’Challa’s king voice demanding the princess be returned. Her captor had been the only one left by that point, the rest of his men taken out stealthily and silently. He’d tried to shoot T’Challa, the bullets bouncing harmlessly away as the King stalked towards him. In that moment, Bucky had privately thought that T’Challa had never looked more like his namesake predator.

“I will have a word with Peter.” Ramonda said after Shuri had finished recounting her side of the story.

“Mama, it is not his fault. I was the one that convinced him to go to the club in the first place. He never wanted to. He did not want to anger you or T’Challa. Punish me if you must, but not him or his friend. He even helped them find me.”

And she was punished, at least somewhat. She wasn’t allowed to leave Wakanda for several months after the incident and even once she was, only with T’Challa to America to oversee the outreach program and even then with Okoye guarding her the entire time.

It was however the last time Shuri went to a club. The next time she hung out with Peter and Michelle in New York, almost a year after the incident, it was to watch movies in his apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized after I had written this I kind of forgot about Peter. So there will be one more chapter involved with this that focuses on him and Shuri's brother(s).
> 
> Edit 4/8/18 A commenter told me that I had made a grammatical mistake in my Xhosa so I have edited it to reflect that. See the notes on chapter 6 for more information.


	18. Unexpected Consequences Part 3

“Parker.” T’Challa said calmly as he sat down in his throne, stopping the boy from leaving the throne room.

Both teens hesitated in the door, Shuri looking suspiciously at her brother and then at Erik and Bucky. None of the three men had moved from their respective spots within the throne room and didn’t look like they had any intention to. Shuri looked apologetically at Peter but followed her mother out of the room.

To say Parker looked scared was an understatement. Part of Bucky thought the kid was always scared of people bigger than him and it probably didn’t help that the three of them were likely the most intimidating people he’d ever been in one room with.

“I swear I never meant for her to get in any trouble or get hurt. She just really wanted to go and I didn’t have a reason to say no and she just looked at me with those eyes and if you’re going to kill me just make sure my aunt is okay” Bucky was sure the kid would have kept rambling if T’Challa hadn’t held up his hand to stop him.

He didn’t speak for a long time, just looked at Parker with his fingers steepled in front of his chin. He glanced at Erik in his spot by the door and then to Bucky before finally speaking up.

“I understand, she can be very persuasive when she wants to be.” He stood from his throne and walked purposefully over to Parker, leaning over to speak almost directly into his ear “But if you have any desire to see my sister after today, you will never let this happen again. I will hold you personally responsible if she so much as gets a bruise while spending time with you. Do I make myself clear?”

Parker nodded quickly “Of course your highness sir. It won’t happen again I promise. Not even a paper cut, I promise.”

Erik scoffed out a laugh that interrupted Parker. “Don’t promise things you can’t keep kid. She ain’t gonna let you put her in bubble wrap.”

“Let her do what she wants without getting hurt.” Bucky added, crossing his arms over his chest, the Vibranium catching the light as though to remind Peter he wasn’t just dealing with normal ‘brothers’.

“But keep that bitch Stark away from her. I don’t want her anywhere near his white ass.” Erik said, earning the slightest of smiles from T’Challa. “Ain’t nothing he can say that she don’t already know.”

“And if she ever sheds a tear because of you, not even the Avengers can keep you out of our reach. Do you understand?” T’Challa finished, stepping back from Peter but still towering more than a head taller than the teen.

Peter’s eyes widened and he blinked a few times before nodding. “Yes sir, I understand sir, she won’t.”

Bucky wondered how Stark put up with Parker with how fast the kid talked. He’d never shut up if no one made him.

_“Is he scared enough?”_ T’Challa asked Erik and Bucky in Xhosa, his eyes not leaving Peter.

_“He did help find her and take out the guards.”_ Bucky pointed out.

_“Kid saw what we looked like when we’re mad. Let ‘im go while he can still breath or Shuri’ll be mad we broke her boyfriend.”_

“You have three hours until your flight to New York. I suggest you use it wisely.” T’Challa said to Peter with a small wry smile.

“Of course your highness, thank you sir.” Peter said in what sounded like surprise before rushing from the room in either fear or eagerness.

“He seems like a good kid.” Bucky said once Peter was gone.

“He will suit her well if he learns to keep her from getting away with everything.” T’Challa said knowingly.

“Kid’s from New York, he’ll figure it out eventually. ‘Sides, any kid that don’t faint after that should least get a chance.” Erik agreed with a smirk.

Bucky laughed a little at Erik’s comment “The more important question is if Shuri is going to kill us for scaring her boyfriend?”


	19. Prank

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will admit that I am rapidly running out of chapters that I have prewritten and haven't really written more due to lack of ideas. It sounds like you guys want more Shuri/Peter but I honestly have trouble writing those, especially since this fic is more focused on Buckys POV of everything it really limits what I can do. So on that note, here is the last thing I currently have written that focuses on Peter and Shuri.

“Princess needs you in the lab, didn’t say for what but wants you asap.” Erik had told him. So Bucky, being the worrier that he is, goes immediately.

He doesn’t expect to find Shuri sitting on her desk instead of at it. He doesn’t expect for her to not be alone. He doesn’t expect the Parker kid to be there and he doesn’t expect them to be practically making out.

Shuri has music playing loud enough to drown out the sound of the door to the lab opening and his footsteps so she’s completely unaware of his presence.

He’s admittedly not that surprised. Shuri had taken to inviting Parker to Wakanda often to do upgrades on his suit and gear past what Stark had the tech for. It had only been a matter of time before Peter had worked up the courage to ask Shuri to be his girlfriend. There had been some disagreement over it from her family and the Avengers at first since they were on ‘opposite’ sides of a fairly major disagreement, namely Bucky himself. In the end the two of them were smart enough to get around any would-be restrictions and the fact that they were both just kids who were in love.

Bucky stood awkwardly in the doorway of the lab for a few seconds before loudly clearing his throat.

Parker jumped away from the desk, his face bright red in embarrassment. Shuri was confused for a second but then saw Bucky and gave a little frustrated frown.

 _“N’Jadaka said”_ He started to say when Shuri threw her hands up in exasperation.

“He told T’Challa the same thing two hours ago. I did not say I needed either of you! And I am going to make his spots into polka-dots next time I get my hands on that suit.”

Bucky smiled a little hearing Shuri had been pranked, despite being part of it himself. _“You know he only does it because he worries about his little cousin._ ”

“You all need to let me live! _Now get out of my lab!”_

Bucky laughed and said _“Fine.”_ And as he walked out the door, he turned back and shouted, “Use protection kids!”

“I will unfix your arm White Boy!”


	20. Smooth Talker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been saving this chapter for a while. Not really sure why, maybe because it kind of has an air of finality to it? I don't know. Either way this is NOT the last chapter, it just kind of feels like it could be. I have something different planned for when I do eventually decide to end this. 
> 
> Have some more Erik and Bucky friendship

Bucky is convinced Erik’s tongue must be made of pure silver with how smooth a talker he can be when he tries.

He thinks privately to himself one day, after watching Erik talk his way out of trouble with T’Challa, that Wakanda could have been a very different place when he’d woken up. If Erik had stayed his hand and relied more on his silver-tongue and less on his strength to spread weapons to the world. Based on what he knows of the incident, it could’ve happened. Based on how he knows Erik as a person now, it never would have.

Erik’s orating prowess comes to a head one day when Tony Stark shows up to Wakanda by surprise. T’Challa being the gracious king and ally he is, invites Stark to the palace but due to the surprise, doesn’t get a chance to warn Bucky that he’s here.

They’re sparring in the training yard, both shirtless in the warm Wakandan sun. Erik’s scars cast odd shadows onto his skin and Bucky’s Vibranium arm sparkles so bright it practically blinds Erik, who had said as much before they started.

Bucky is poised to punch when he is caught off guard by a blast to his shoulder. The plasma blast strikes the joint where the metal is fused to his body and his nerves light up in agony. Shuri had warned him of that when she told him she fixed his nerve endings but that didn’t make it hurt any less. His real hand leapt to his opposite shoulder, clutching it as he fell to his knees in pain.

Erik ran over to him, checking he was okay before turning his fury at the culprit. T’Challa has already stepped in, his hand around Stark’s wrist where the miniature Iron-Man laser stemmed from his palm.

“You’ve been hiding him here.” Stark says accusingly, glaring at T’Challa. “Of all places here. After what he did to your family?”

“Sergeant Barnes was not the one responsible for my father’s death.” The King says calmly, his eyes not leaving Stark’s. “He was not responsible for the attack that day. You know that to be the truth. In Wakanda we are willing to forgive past mistakes if the one who made them is willing to change.”

“He can’t change!” Stark insists. “HYDRA fucked with his head, Rogers said it himself!”

“He did though!” Erik shouts from across the yard, standing tall and confident. “Shuri and her team fixed his head and he did the rest! This man is not a killer!”

“And who are you” Tony tries to say, his tone condescending.

“I ain’t finished! He’s as much of a protector of Wakanda as the Black Panther and I trust him with my life. I heard stories of what he’d done. He was what the men I served under wanted us to be. The perfect soldier. We wanted to be him, hell I wanted to be him, still do sometimes. But he didn’t.” He starts to stalk across the yard to where T’Challa and Stark stand.

“Shuri fixed his head. She gave him his choice back. So I’ll be dammed if I let some rich white boy who got his feelings hurt take that freedom away.”

“He’s an international fugitive, you can’t do anything about that.” Stark says easily, with all the air of thinking he is completely correct.

Bucky expects Erik to get angry, to leap for Stark or threaten him with violence. Instead a smirk spreads across his features, gold capped teeth glinting in the light.

“’Cept I can.” He stands before Stark threateningly, almost a full head taller than him. “I’m the guard of the borders of Wakanda. You entered our nation illegally and with the power given to me by his majesty King T’Challa, you are under arrest.”

The second part is a rehearsed speech, Erik’s version of the Miranda rights given by police in America that he had heard growing up. He’d explained to Bucky once that it had been a private joke at first, something to make him chuckle. But soon enough it became part of his protocol when detaining an intruder. Tony Stark or not, he had entered the border without warning, permission, or invitation.

“So here’s your options white boy. I take you to our prison and you face trial before our government with no help or rights from your own. Same as anyone else who I catch sneaking in without permission. Or you get the hell out of Wakanda and never come back unless the King himself gives you a personal fucking invite.”

“The UN won’t stand for this.” Stark says, hands clenched into fists.

“Neither will I. He’s got diplomatic immunity in our borders. Last I checked, he hasn’t left those since you chased him outta Siberia. You ain’t got any power here no matter how many guys in suits you have behind you. I ain’t gonna stand for it. Now get the fuck outta our country.”

Bucky hadn’t moved since he’d be shot, slowly he stood and walked over calmly to stand next to Erik.

‘I’m sorry.’ He wanted to say. To Stark for his parents. To T’Challa for imposing on his country. To Erik for feeling like he had to stand up for him. He wanted to say it to everyone around him who he had ever met and whose lives he had ever been a part of.

Tony stares at him for a long moment, murder in his eyes. Bucky holds his gaze calmly, hoping he was conveying at least some of the remorse he felt. Finally Stark roughly pulled his hand from T’Challa’s, straightened his suit jacket and turned on his heel. He gave one last look of fury and disgust towards all three of them before boarding his ship. Less than a minute later it was a shrinking speck in the distance and then Tony Stark was gone.

The yard is silent except for the wind among the trees, none of them quite sure what to say. Slowly Bucky lets out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and puts his hand on Erik’s shoulder.

“Thank you.” He says quietly, barely a whisper. Erik doesn’t react at first but then turns slightly toward Bucky and crosses one arm over his chest into the half Wakandan salute he used instead of sappy words.

 _“Wakanda forever”_ He said with a small smile.

 _“Wakanda forever”_ Bucky replied with more sincerity than he had ever felt in his entire life.

T’Challa, ever the leader, spoke up with a smile _“Come my friends, let us see what Shuri can do about the nerves in your arm. We don’t want you in pain if there is ever a threat to Wakanda. It is not right for one of its protectors to have such a disadvantage.”_


	21. Tradition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter rated 'M' for Made up Wakandan tradition

“All Wakandans make them.” Shuri was saying, pulling up picture after picture of traditional beaded strands. Each bead was said to represent an aspect of the crafters life, a different person, an experience, a dream and so on.

“But I’m not Wakandan.” He tried to argue and all three of them looked at him with different expressions of confusion.

“Like hell you ain’t Barnes. Now stop complaining and start making beads. Even I got em and half the country still don’t trust me.” Erik said which of course gave Bucky no excuse.

He was oddly enough well liked among the people despite looking nothing like them, acting different than them (at first) and having nothing but the royal families word that he was a good person. Somehow he had people in nearly every village that would at least greet him by his name or the one the River Tribe had given him, if not stop to make conversation. It was more welcome than he had ever felt in his entire life, including when he had been young in New York.

 _“Good morning Bucky!”_ A woman called with a wave as he walked through the market, a basket balanced on her head.

 _“Bucky I have more fresh mangos, they are very sweet this time.”_ Another women said with a smile, passing him one of the fruit and waving off his attempt to hand her a coin to pay for it.

He walked through the market most mornings, taking in the sights and smells of Wakandan life past how its royal family lived. Of course he was always welcome in the palace but he liked being down among everything, it reminded him of being back in New York and going with his mom to the farmer’s markets.

 _“You look troubled White Wolf.”_ Another woman said, someone he recognized from his village in the River Tribe.

 _“I have been instructed to make Amava beads by the Princess.”_ Bucky explained with a sigh. The woman laughed good-naturedly.

 _“Of course, you are long overdue. You are an adult in your own right. I do not see the trouble my friend.”_ She said, arranging the fish she had for sale on her table.

_“I am not Wakandan, I have no right to follow your traditions. I am an outsider.”_

_“I have never known an outsider to speak Xhosa as well as you. Or take to our dress so wonderfully or enjoy our food and culture as you do. Just because you were not born in Wakanda does not mean you can never be Wakandan. You have learned well and appreciate all we are as a people and as a country. You are as much Wakandan as anyone whose blood is from here. Come to my hut at sundown, I would honored to give you your first bead._ ”

And so it began for him. He received a small bead in a shade of green from every member of his village, each unique in pattern and shape. Word must have spread quickly to those who knew him that he was creating his Amava beads, as each time he mentioned it to someone, they “happened” to have a bead for him on them. His strand grew and grew into a rainbow of colors. Green from the River Tribe, some red ones from the few people he knew in the Mining Tribe, a handful of blue ones from the Border Tribe, an intricate purple bead from the Queen Mother to represent the Panther Tribe of the royal family, a red and gold bead from Okoye for the Dora Milaje, a spotted golden bead from N’Jadaka, a black bead from T’Challa that shimmered purple in the light and a bead of pure polished Vibranium from Shuri.

Hers was the last bead she added. Almost a full two weeks after she had given him his task, he came to her lab with a strand of beads that when attached to his belt, went just past his knee. It was filled with beads from everyone he knew as well as a number of beads he himself had made to represent all he had been through.

There were two beads he’d painted red white and blue, one striped horizontally and one done with circles of color on either side, one for America and New York, the other for the Army and Captain America. There were white beads that represented his time in Cryo, because Amava beads were more than just the good in life, they included mistakes as well. Thus the inclusion of two star shaped beads, one red and one black. He had beads painted with the colors of the flags of all the countries he’d ever lived in, in hiding or not, including a large one with the colors of the Wakandan flag. He even had an intricate bead carved to look like a wolf’s head, given to him by the River Tribe elder. But one bead was missing at this point, arguably the single most important, Shuri’s.

“Wow, it is longer than mine is.” Shuri commented when he came into the lab with the strand wrapped around his wrist. He handed it to her and she let it unravel, looking at all the beads with a fond smile. “I have always like T’Challa’s bead and N’Jadaka did well with his.” She commented, scrutinizing her family’s work. “But you are missing one.” She said coyly.

“I know. _I have experienced much in my life; I make this strand to show my life as it was and what I hope it will be. I ask to add you to my Amava.”_  He recited in well-rehearsed Xhosa. He’d said the traditional phrase what felt like hundreds of times over the last few weeks but this would be the last for some time. Amava strands never really stopped growing but once you were caught up to the present, their growth rapidly slowed down.

Shuri smiled widely and laugh a little “ _You are too formal._ ” She teased, pulling a small bead from her pocket. It shined in the lights of her lab far brighter than any others on his strand. Most were made of clay or stone, painted and carved by hand. But of course Shuri would not be so traditional. She untied the knot at the end of his strand with deft fingers and slid the small orb of Vibranium on, tying off the string again to keep it all secure.

 _“I am honored to be part of your Amava Bucky as you are part of mine._ You had better get to work on your bead. You need a place on my strand.”


	22. Warrior

“So who’s the Golden Jaguar anyway?” He asks Erik while they follow their normal route along the river one day.

“Apparently he’s ‘nother one of those warriors that helps the Black Panther out. Like a bodyguard or something.” Erik says easily, stretching one of his arms out with a comfortable casualness.

“Seems like there’s one for every color.” Bucky jokes and Erik grins in amusement.

“You’d know wouldn’t you _White Wolf_. When’s Princess gonna make you a magic suit to match ours?” He says, only somewhat teasing.

“If she offers or I need it then maybe, but I’m good to just be me.”

A few days later he’s in Shuri’s lab, the princess doing updates on his arm despite his insistence that it was already perfect.

“N’Jadaka mentioned something about a White Wolf suit.” She said, not looking up from her tablet.

“I don’t need it.” Bucky assured her quickly.

“But maybe you do. Clearly no one but Wakanda trusts that you are healed completely or they refuse to believe it. If we could show them differently they would have no choice.” She said it with an annoyed tone, as though she couldn’t believe people could be so dense.

“What are you saying?”

“I am saying that perhaps it is time for Wakanda to give the world another hero.”

That is how he finds himself with a black version of Erik’s Golden Jaguar necklace. It’s simplified compared to that gaudy thing, just black tinted Vibranium etched with angular geometric designs.

“Ok so it is connected to you via a bio-lock and should respond to your mental commands.” Shuri tells him, doing last minute checks on the mantle and the tech within it. “I used the same system as I did with both of the others. Give it a try.”

‘Activate’ he thinks, unsure what else to do.

He feels it before he sees it, the Vibranium nanite mesh spreading over him like a second skin and shredding his clothes in the process. (Something he’d always thought Shuri would find a workaround for) When the mask comes up to cover his face he has a panic of claustrophobia for a moment before the eyepieces open and he can see. His vision is slightly obscured by the display on the right lens showing him all sorts of information he didn’t really care about.

“What do you think?” She asks as he flexes his fingers and moves his limbs to get a feel for it.

“Different than I’m used to.” He admits.

“That is how T’Challa felt the first time as well, and the old suit was way worse. You will get used to it. You look cool.” She said with a smile. “Well of course you do, I designed it.”

She gestures towards a mirror and he turns to get a full body look. He’d seen it on the mannequin but on him it seemed different. The suit is nearly identical to the other two in silhouette but pure white instead of black. There is a black belt around his waist as well as around each ankle. The necklace completed the balance of black and white.

There had been some argument on the secondary color that would decorate the suit when it was charged with kinetic energy. T’Challa had suggested black to go with the rest of the suit but Shuri had felt it would be too much when it was fully charged. Erik had suggested red or blue but Bucky hadn’t really liked the way it looked on the mockup so those had been scrapped as well. Bucky had been messing around with the mockup on Shuri’s tablet and had accidentally made the secondary color silver and while at first it looked somewhat odd, the more he looked the more it grew on him.

They had settled on silver despite Erik’s teasing about the White Wolf turning into the opposite of the Golden Jaguar. However Bucky could tell that Erik did seem at least a little bit flattered.

“Thoughts?” Shuri asked again, standing off to the side watching him take it in.

“I like how it looks.”

“I based it off of the stories but updated it to make it more modern and along the same design style as the other two.” She said, running her fingertips along the arm of the suit that covered his Vibranium one. It was an innocent gesture but the fact that she trusted him enough to do it and that he didn’t flinch away from the unexpected touch really showed just how far he had come.

“Does it pull or catch on the arm? It should not if I designed it properly.” He moved his arm in every manner he could consider it might be used, including throwing a few punches and it felt as smooth as though he had a real arm. “Feels good. Feels great actually.”

She smiled brightly and fist pumped in excitement. “Then it is ready to be tested!” She declared and something about her tone made a shudder go down Bucky’s spine.

A few weeks later there is minor terrorist threat in Egypt that T’Challa asks Bucky to accompany him on. When Iron-Man and War Machine show up on the orders of the UN, the threat has already been contained but it gives them both a chance to question who Black Panther’s partner is.

“Another one?” Iron-Man asks, landing in front of the two from Wakanda.

Bucky wants to make a comment about the two Americans not really having a place to talk but he stays silent, looking to T’Challa to signal for him to talk.

“I could say the same thing Stark.” The King says, and Bucky has to keep from snorting out a laugh. Too bad they’re all wearing masks so no one can see the others expression.

“Okay fine. Whatever. You two did good just next time give us a heads up. You’re still under the accords.” He warns.

“I am aware Mr. Stark.” T’Challa says and Bucky sees Stark’s hands tense a little into fists.

“Your Highness. Whoever you are.” Stark nods to them both before he and War Machine take off back home.

“This might just work.” Bucky comments as they disappear into the sky.

“It will my friend. It will.”


	23. Shuri and T'Challa part 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't the chapter I had planned to upload today, but I finished it late last night and I am in love with it. 
> 
> Also it is 1000 times better if you listen to Stuff We Did from the soundtrack for Up while reading. Just put it on repeat and thank me later. 
> 
> (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coc6lSgwZvU)

It was a rare day when Queen Mother Ramonda came to Shuri’s lab. It wasn’t as though she was uninterested in her daughter’s work, Ramonda was often the first to ask what Shuri was working on, but despite being Queen in little more than name, she was a busy woman.

“Ok how does that feel?” Shuri was asking Bucky, stepping back after resetting his metal arm in place. He had managed to damage the connection somehow when sparring with T’Challa and Shuri had demanded he come in at once so she could fix it.

Bucky rolled his shoulder and nodded “Feels good, no pinching or aching.”

“Now do not break it again.” She reprimanded, lightly hitting his shoulder.

 _“Shuri, what have I said about being respectful to guests?”_ Ramonda said with a fond tone as she gracefully swept into the lab, Dora Milaje behind her.

 _“Sorry mama.”_ Shuri said quickly, though it didn’t sound like she really meant it and the look she gave Bucky only proved that assumption.

“How are you doing Sargent Barnes?” The Queen Mother asked, hands clasped regally in front of her.

“Please Ma’am, call me Bucky. I prefer it far more than any title. But I’m doing good. Shuri’s work has done wonders for me. This is the best I’ve felt in longer than I care to consider.”

“I am glad to hear it. It makes me proud to hear that my family has been able to help your recovery so much.”

She turned to from Bucky to Shuri but before she could speak further Shuri said “What help did you need Mama?” a mischievous smile on her face.

Ramonda rolled her eyes but handed over a set of Kimoyo Beads. She was still wearing her own causing Shuri to look at her in confusion. “These are an older model, are they an older set of yours?”

“Yes, I found them in a chest in my closet. If you have the time, I would be grateful if you could sort through the files on them and send me anything interesting or important.”

Shuri nodded and quickly moved to her worktable to try and connect the old beads to her tablet. “I should have it all done by dinner Mama.” Shuri assured her and with a smile and a kiss to the top of her daughter’s head, the Queen left the lab.

At first there wasn’t much on the beads, old photos, some random files, messages long past relevant. But then, they found the videos.

  _“Come on Shuri, it’s easy. Just say T’-Cha-La. T’-Cha-La. I’m your brother, can’t you at least say my name instead of babbling all the time?”_ The young prince was pleading with a small baby, her curly black hair already in braids on the sides of her head.

 _“T’-Cha-La. You can do it.”_ He tried again but the baby, Shuri, did not care.

 _“Mama, she can’t do anything. She is too little.”_ T’Challa said, turning towards whoever was filming with a huff.

 _“She will learn my son. She is still very young. It may be some months before she is even capable of small sounds.”_ Ramonda’s voice assured him.

T’Challa sighed in disappointment and reached forward to let baby Shuri grasp at his fingers. _“You’re smart aren’t you sisi? You are smart enough to say my name. I know you are.”_ He said quietly, so quietly the microphone barely picked his voice up.

He leaned down to kiss her forehead before pulling his hand away.

 _“Challa”_ A faint voice said, unsure.

 _“Challa”_ She said louder this time. The prince looked back at his sister in surprise and then at his mother.

 _“Challa!”_ The princess said again, practically yelling as she shook her tiny fist in her brother’s direction. _“Challa! Challa! Challa!”_

A wide smile spread on T’Challa’s face and he quickly gave Shuri’s his fingers back. _“I guess that will work for now sisi.”_ The baby yawned wide and then wiggled a little in her cradle. The camera moved closer just in time to see T’Challa’s proud smile as Shuri’s eyes shut and she fell asleep still gripping his fingers.

From there on out it seemed every file was a home video of some kind, one right after another. There were ones they could expect, Shuri’s first steps, her first birthday; T’Challa’s birthday though it was unclear which one, but there were others that Bucky was sure weren’t part of normal family home videos.

 _“I am the Black Panther!”_ T’Challa declared, wearing his father’s Black Panther helmet on his head, despite it being several sizes too big.

A man was laughing in the background and declared _“One day my son. One day you will be.”_

 _“It’s my turn bhuti!”_ A young girl whined, trying to jump and take the helmet off T’Challa’s head but he was far too tall for her to be successful.

 _“I’m going to be the Black Panther, not you.”_ He tried but a moment later he relented, removing the helmet and handing it to Shuri. There must have been a stern look from one of their parents off screen.

 _“I can’t see anything.”_ Shuri complained and T’Challa laughed. If the helmet was too big for him, it was massive on his four-year-old sister. It tipped and wiggled as she looked back and forth, the ends of her braids sticking out from beneath it.

 _“You are a cub sisi.”_ T’Challa teased, clutching his stomach from laughter as Shuri turned quickly towards him, sending the helmet twisting around her head.

 _“I’ll show you a cub bhuti.”_ She threatened, removing the helmet and tackling her brother to the ground. The prince unable to defend himself due to his laughter.

Another video was taken from a doorway as Shuri sat in T’Challa’s lap on his bed, the elder reading to the younger the stories of their people. A few showed early tests of her first inventions and experiments, T’Challa almost always the test subject. Birthday after birthday passed, each video a random snapshot of the life of the siblings.

 _“I will start my lessons with Baba next week.”_ T’Challa was saying quietly. He and Shuri were sitting on his bed once more, he just behind her as he diligently tied her hair into braids.

 _“Your lessons to be King?”_ Shuri asked, now around ten years old.

_“Yes.”_

_“But you’ll still play with me and read with me right? And test my inventions?_ ” Shuri said, sounding like she was pleading.

T’Challa did not respond for a long time, fingers deftly working her hair. Finally he said _“Of course I will try sisi, but I don’t know how busy Baba will make me. Learning to lead is not easy. There are so many more lessons. You are lucky you are the younger one and do not have to worry about leading one day.”_

 _“Unless I challenge you.”_ She said with utmost seriousness.

T’Challa saw right through her façade though and chuckled softly _“When that day comes, I will gladly hand the throne over to you if you wish it sisi. You can lead Wakanda and I will protect it. You are the smartest person I know, you would do very well I think._ ”

_“But never as well as you will bhuti.”_

When the video blipped off, Bucky glanced over at Shuri and saw glistening tear tracks running down her cheek. He almost asked what was wrong but stopped when he saw the soft smile on her face. It was a smile he hadn’t seen often, one of nostalgia and fondness.

“You okay?” Bucky asked softly.

Shuri nodded, wiping her eyes with the backs of her wrists. She sniffed a little, trying to compose herself again.

“Come, we will be late for dinner if we stay here much longer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 4/8/18 A commenter told me that I had made a grammatical mistake in my Xhosa so I have edited it to reflect that. See the notes on chapter 6 for more information.


	24. Demonstration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of a mishmash of some different ideas that have been floating around my head. 
> 
> Please feel free to send me ideas or little prompts to spark my writing brain. I'm pretty close to caught up to what I had prewritten. 
> 
> Also thanks again to everyone who is reading and commenting, I really really appreciate it!

As soon as Shuri finished the White Wolf suit, Bucky knew immediately what he had to do.

A quick word to Amandi and the other parent’s of his village and he had all the blessing he needed to introduce the children to one of the hero’s from their stories.

 _“White Wolf!”_ The children called excitedly when he got off the ship. He crouched down to their level and welcomed them with open arms as they tackled him.

 _“I have something to show you.”_ He told them from his place on the ground. The older children backed off, excited to see but Bucky carried one of the younger ones with him as he sat up.

_“What is it?”_

_“A present from Princess Shuri?”_

He ignored the questions with a coy smile as he stood, setting the child in his arms down and taking a step back.

None of the children seemed to notice the new necklace he had draped around his collarbones or even suspect it was anything special. At least until he activated the suit to gasps of awe and joy.

In an instant the children were all over him, feeling the smooth material of the suit and asking so many questions he couldn’t even begin to try and translate them.

_“Princess Shuri made it for me. I need a suit like the Black Panther if I am going to help protect Wakanda right? Is it like your stories?”_

_“It is perfect.”_ One of the older girls said, smiling at him. She knew he wasn’t really the hero from their stories and that he was in Wakanda for a complicated reason that they hadn’t been told about.

 _“I’m glad you approve Umthi.”_ Bucky said with a smile, not like she could see it.

 _“Are you stronger than the Black Panther?”_ One of the boys asked and Bucky chuckled a little.

_“I don’t think so. He is the guardian of Wakanda. But maybe I will see if he would be willing to have a pretend fight with me and you can find out.”_

That is how T’Challa, Erik and Bucky end up facing one another in an open field just outside the village. All three are in their respective suits and the children are cheering excitedly from the designated sidelines. It’s not really clear which of the three they are rooting for to win, possibly Bucky because he is ‘the hometown hero’ of the village so to speak.

Some of the village adults have even gathered, this being a somewhat rare opportunity for them to see their King in action, even if it was only a sparring match.

Shuri had come as well to officiate. She was just as excited as the children it seemed about the whole endeavor.

“Do not take this too seriously.” Shuri said quietly, looking somewhat pointedly at Erik. “This is to entertain the kids, not for you three to kill each other.”

Shuri stepped back to the edge of the circle and raised her hand _“Ready? Fight!”_

There was an odd balance to the three of them that quickly became apparent. T’Challa and Erik had far more experience with the suits, as well as the advantage of the heart-shaped herb on their side. But Bucky had the advantage that no one but Shuri really even knew about, he still had the super-soldier serum running through his veins. With our without the suit, he was able to hold his own against them.

Erik was distracted fighting T’Challa when Bucky took his chance, kicking Erik out of the ring and the fight.

Then it was just Bucky and T’Challa. “Very different than the first time we fought.” T’Challa commented as they circled each other.

“Can’t say I’m mad about it.” Bucky replied with a chuckle. “I’d much rather fight you like this than have you try to kill me.”

“I agree.” And then T’Challa lunged, Bucky barely dodging in time.

It wasn’t long before both of their suits were glowing their respective colors. T’Challa was far more skilled with the channeling and use of the kinetic energy power, but Bucky had one thing going for him, Shuri’s love of mocking her brother.

With a smirk, Bucky lashed out with his metal arm, the punch connecting solidly with T’Challa’s arm as he blocked it but then suddenly the King was flying backwards out of the ring with a blast of kinetic energy.

Bucky turned to Shuri and deactivated his helmet. “I hope you got that on video Shuri because I don’t think he’ll let it happen again.”


	25. Lacey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your comments and suggestions! 
> 
> Have a short little fluff piece inspired by a short animation by willow-s-linda on tumblr. (https://willow-s-linda.tumblr.com/post/171686061283/a-fan-animation-where-shuri-wants-real-life)

_“For Bast’s sake sit still!”_ Bucky heard Shuri shout when he was in the doorway to her lab.

“Shuri?” He asked with cautious amusement as he entered the lab with T’Challa.

Shuri had supposedly been doing updates on both their suits, despite Bucky still not really being sure he deserved/needed one. This certainly didn’t sound like it was related to that. The two men looked at each other and shrugged before turning the corner and seeing what the commotion was about.

 _“What in Bast’s name are you doing?”_ T’Challa exclaimed seeing what was going on.

Shuri was seemingly trying to wrangle a panther cub on one of her design tables but the cub was squirming against her hold and trying to pounce on every little light that lined the table. Bucky couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Shuri, arms wrapped around the cub, her braids falling out of their bun and into her face.

“You think this funny Barnes? I spent thirty minutes trying to catch her to get this far.” She said, glaring at him as she blew a braid out of her face.

“But why sisi?” T’Challa asked, barely holding back a chuckle of his own seeing Shuri in such a state.

“I wanted a live reference okay! I did not think it would be such a big deal. The cubs are so well behaved at the preserve I thought one would let me reference it while I worked.”

The cub was batting at one of her braids now and Shuri sighed in exasperation. When the men stepped closer, the cub’s ears perked up and it turned to look at them in interest. It scented the air and then wiggled out of Shuri’s grasp to sprint towards Bucky. The cub rubbed against his legs and after a moment Bucky realized which cub this was.

“If you wanted to look at Lacey you could’ve just asked, when I’m there she barely leaves my side. I could have helped.” He laughed, scooping up the cub in his arms. She wiggled a little but then seemed to happily settle in his grasp.

Lacey was his special girl, the staff at the reserve liked to tease him. She'd practically imprinted on him the moment she was brought to the reserve and would follow him around like a little duckling whenever he was there. So naturally he'd been given the honor of naming her. He'd named her after the stray cat he'd found way back when he was a kid. It had been pretty much feral but if he brought food and sat really still, sometimes she would come up and lay down next to him. 

Shuri smacked herself in the face and said, “Of course it would be the one who has decided she is yours. Just my luck. I asked to borrow a cub for research and they handed her to me without questions. They must have assumed I was doing a project with you.”

“Was it worth it?” T’Challa asked, walking over to look at her tablet. “Did your reference help?” He added, only sounding a little teasing.

“Yes it did your majesty.” Shuri replied, sticking her tongue out and snatching the tablet from him. A few swipes and taps and then an image of a motorcycle was projected in the room in full-size. The bike, while a holographic blueprint, did have a distinctly panther-like shape to it.

“Were you not working on the suits?” T’Challa asked, walking around the design and getting a closer look.

Shuri waved her hand with a scoff “I finished those in the first hour of work. I needed something else to occupy myself so I designed this.”

She started to rattle off specs and numbers and all sorts of information about the bike but Bucky was distracted by the low rumbling in his arms, a sound he knew by now was the closest thing to a purr the cubs were capable of. Lacey had fallen asleep in his arms.

Shuri turned to say something to him and her expression fell into an annoyed frown “Of course she falls asleep the moment I stop paying attention.”

“I would have helped if you told me what you were doing.” Bucky reiterated with a chuckle. “I’ll just take her back to the preserve unless you still needed her?”

She thought for a second but then shook her head “Come back when you are finished, I have designs to show you as well.”

Lacey stirred slightly when he started walking and even more when he set her down in his lap on the ship, but quickly curled up in his lap, her tail lightly flicking against his side. “C’mon kid, let’s take you home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 4/8/18 A commenter told me that I had made a grammatical mistake in my Xhosa so I have edited it to reflect that. See the notes on chapter 6 for more information.


	26. Culture Shock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little blurb of a thing about Bucky's thoughts about Wakanda.

After the initial shock of being awake, alive and unfrozen wore off, Bucky was faced with a whole different kind of shock.

At first he hadn’t been worried about living in a new place, he’d moved so many times in his life and lived in so many different countries and cities with different languages and cultures, adapting to Wakanda should be a piece of cake. But after the third time Shuri explained to him the way the tribal politics of Wakanda worked, Bucky realized that in all his travels outside of the states, he had always lived in European countries. And Africa, even an advanced culture like that of Wakanda, was very very different.

It was interesting to hear just how advanced they were simply due to the Vibranium. He did have to admit he was a little upset to hear that they had nearly mastered advanced hologram technology while the rest of the world, himself included, fought each other in World War II. But despite that, they were so advanced it made him think of the sci-fi stories he’d hear on the radio when he was a kid. Then he took into consideration that Shuri almost single-handedly fixed all the damage done to his brain and was already working on a new, better, arm for him. Wakanda had to be the most advanced country on Earth.

Then he left the Capital city for the first time.

Part of his recovery meant learning to trust others again, the first step was to give him someone who he could trust and rely on without worry. It also meant that he and Shuri were practically attached at the hip for the first few weeks. He knew inherently he could trust the people of Wakanda, but his brain wasn’t so easy to convince. So to help him work on that trust, she took him with her wherever she went, including on a visit to the River Tribe.

The moment they stepped off the ship he did a double take. Instead of the towering, gleaming buildings he had grown somewhat used to, the village was made of mud and thatch huts. It was still obviously Wakanda, the people had Kimoyo beads and their garments gleamed from the Vibranium threads woven in between the more traditional ones. He could even catch a glimpse of the tallest tower of the Capital if he looked through the trees at just the right angle.

Shuri had noticed his confusion and chuckled “We were not always so motivated by technology. The tribes outside the capital keep closer to the old ways. We remember our heritage and our culture while moving forward.”

Over the next few weeks he visited all the different tribes and saw for himself that the Capital was actually the odd thing out. It also made him realize that the rest of the world’s perception about Wakanda being a third world country of farmers and tribes people was not as far off as he’d first assumed. The first he’d seen of Wakanda was it’s most advanced part, the experimental tech lab that Shuri ran. This was closer to the real Wakanda.

He felt like an outsider everywhere he went and occasionally there were stares at his light skin but there was also something about Wakanda that didn’t scare him off. Slowly but surely he learned. He learned which of the native fruits he liked, some he was a little familiar with but many not. He learned how to properly wear the tunic like garments. He eventually learned to understand how the government worked. He learned the history of Wakanda and how it came to be. Slowly but surely he came to love the country and it’s culture.

He found that he never grew tired of the watching the sunrise and the sunset. He never grew tired of the richly spiced food (once he got used to it). He never got tired of watching the children in the villages run and laugh and play. He never got tired of the smiles the people gave him, despite him being so different from them. He didn’t think he would ever grow tired of Wakanda.

By the time a year had passed it was easy to forget that he had ever lived anywhere else.


	27. Killmonger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven't had a chapter with Erik as a main character for a while. This isn't too long but I kind of like it.

The first time Bucky encounters Erik alone it goes far differently than when he met him the first time.

He is walking through the halls of the palace, lost beyond belief, just trying to make his way back to the room that had been designated as his. He likes his room, it has a lovely view of one of the gardens and all the amenities he could think of and more he barely could comprehend. The bed is big enough for him to stretch out fully and he’s pretty sure it’s the most comfortable thing he’s ever slept on in his life. There is a fully stocked closet with both Wakandan and western style clothes and don’t even get him started on the attached en suite bathroom. He loves his room and at this point would give anything to just be there right now instead of some wing of the palace he’s never even seen.

He passes all sorts of guards and staff who give him somewhat concerned looks and he definitely could ask any of them for help but he’s a proud man who has a fixed head for the first time in years and he wants to do this himself dammit.

He rounds a corner that seems right but finds himself back in front of the same window he’d been at ten minutes ago.

“You look lost as hell white boy.” A man says and Bucky looks away from the window to see, N’Jadaka, no Erik, leaning against a doorframe a bit down the hall.

“Princess not here to hold your leash?” He teases, pushing off from the door and approaching Bucky and Bucky can’t help but noticed the almost predatory way he walks.

Bucky’s instincts tell him to prepare for a fight, despite being down an arm and in an unfamiliar place and against an unfamiliar person. He stands up a little taller and squares his shoulders a bit, unconsciously posturing against the ‘threat’.

Erik seems to read the gesture for what it is and smirks a little. “What do you think your gonna do to me white boy, think I’m scared of the big bad Winter Soldier? I’ve fought guys far scarier than you without breaking a sweat so step off.”

He’s in Bucky’s space now, the two nearly toe to toe. They’re practically the same height, forcing their eyes to meet. “Got nothing to say? Thought you’d be all talk now that you ain’t some crazy super soldier, you got nothing for me _Soldat_?”

He butchers the Russian accent and the pronunciation, but it’s enough to make Bucky stiffen and Erik smirk. “Guess you ain’t all fixed yet.” He comments and backs off with a confident stride in his steps, the way a victor walks.

“There you are Bucky!” Shuri is saying, appearing from around the corner like she’d been there the whole time. Two of her Kimoyo beads are lit up, one gold, the other silvery-white, he knows there is a significance to it but isn’t quite sure what.

She looks at Erik and says something to him in Xhosa that sounds surprisingly accusatory and he responds with the same confident, if somewhat scathing tone he’d used with Bucky, though his Xhosa doesn’t sound quite as natural as Shuri’s.

Erik walks away finally, hands in his pockets and a swagger in his steps and Bucky figures that every family must have at least one bad egg, no matter how advanced the culture or caring the siblings.

Shuri starts to drag him away, hopefully back towards his room, talking his ear off but he’s preoccupied in his thoughts, making a mental note to avoid Erik going forward. It was better for both of them that way.


	28. Storm

If there was one thing Bucky missed about the rest of the world, it was the weather.

Wakanda’s weather was beautiful, but it was rarely anything but sunny or partly cloudy. Even in what was apparently the rainy season, there wasn’t much more than two weeks of scattered showers with the occasional torrential downpour and even those downpours barely lasted an hour at a time. How could a nation be so prosperous in vegetation yet get so little rain? The answer, as with many things in Wakanda, was technology.

It is after Bucky’s first ‘rainy season’ that he asks Shuri about his concerns.

“There are number of hydroponic gardens across Wakanda, the largest is in the Capital. Those gardens are fed from underground cisterns that have been used for hundreds of years.” She explains, not even looking up from her current project. “And the Vibranium in the soil does not hurt either, it makes everything in Wakanda stronger, especially the plants.”

“Does it ever snow here?” Bucky asks T’Challa one day as they both sit reading in one of the study’s. Bucky is looking out one of the windows at the sunshine on the grass plain.

“In the Jabari mountains yes, but never in any of our tribelands.” The King replies, only glancing up away from his book for politeness sake it seems.

“Are you gonna make a grass angel?” Bucky teases Erik when the man lays down in exhaustion in the soft grass of the garden, tired from their sparring match.

“Ain’t never made a snow angel.” He comments. “Plenty of sand and dirt angels but never snow.” And Bucky blinks in surprise.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Man I’m from Oakland, it don’t snow an inch there. ‘Specially not when I was a kid.”

He starts to feel extra homesick soon after that conversation. He missed watching silent snowfall and how it looked piled on everything before people touched it. He missed the sound of rolling summer storms and the soothing pattering of rain on his window in New York. He’d always loved the rain, how it made everything crisp and how it smelled after it had ended. He’d never told anyone but Steve but back when they were teenagers, he’d always fantasized about dancing in the rain with someone. Steve had indulged him once or twice, but he’d been so frail back then, Bucky had always worried about him catching a cold or pneumonia.

Shuri has a speaking engagement at MIT and plans to swing by New York to see Peter. Its early April at this point and Bucky asks if he can tagalong just to get out of Wakanda for a bit. They are checking into the hotel when the clouds roll in and Bucky smiles, looking up at the sky.

They order pizza in the room when it starts to rain, Shuri worrying that it may effect how the hologram that hides his identity in public works. She’s got her slice in her mouth when a clap of thunder rings out, causing the princess to scream in surprise.

“Was that thunder?” She asks in astonishment.

Lightning flashes outside their window followed almost instantly by another deafening clap of thunder.

“Why is it so loud? How can it be so loud?” She asks, looking out the window.

Bucky just smiles and lays back in his bed, arms crossed behind his head and eyes closed. “It’ll settle down as the storm moves over.” He assures her, just listening.

“Why are you smiling? It is so loud and annoying!”

Bucky cracks an eye open and says, “This is normal New York weather, this is what I grew up with. It’s relaxing if you just let it be.”

“Is it going to storm like this all night? I will never get any sleep!”

“You barely do anyway.” He teases and she frowns at him.

Shuri tosses and turns for the better part of an hour before getting up with a huff and pulling earplugs out of her bag. Once she gets back into bed it still takes a while before she falls fully asleep.

Bucky however, sleeps like a baby.


	29. Music

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I am really excited about this chapter. It's all about music, especially swing from the 30s/40s. I will put a list of all my inspiration songs and how I used them at the bottom. Enjoy what has quickly become one of my favorite chapters!

Bucky knew Shuri liked music. If she wasn’t listening to something while she worked you could tell immediately something was wrong.

What she listened to varied, depending on the day and the project or even the person. Generally she listened to what she called EDM, which to him just sounded like noise without much else to it but she insisted it was more than that, well to each their own. He noticed that when she was working on something specifically for T’Challa, she listened to songs in Xhosa, ranging from traditional sounding things to what he thought might be covers of pop and rock songs from America. Erik got rap and hip-hop on a playlist called ‘decent ass music’ which must have been courtesy of Erik himself. Even Parker had his own special soundtrack, early 2000s top hits mixed with the occasional science podcast.

But as far as he could tell, Shuri had designated nothing special for Bucky himself. He knew he really had no place to ask or make requests; she listened to music that helped her work. Or maybe she did have something for him and he just couldn’t tell. Either way he couldn’t help but feel a little left out.

Even if she had something for him, what would it be? He hadn’t really listened to music since the occasional rally performance during his time serving in the army and even those turned pretty far from music once Captain America came to be. He’d never been one to really pay attention to the names of the bands and musicians in the dance clubs or on the radio. He didn’t remember song names or lyrics and he couldn’t even remember how any specific songs from back then sounded. Before he even so much as considered suggesting songs to Shuri he needed to figure out what songs he would like.

In his room he had a computer that had access to the Internet but he’d barely touched it so far. It’s not like he’d never used a computer before, it was impossible to not in this day and age, especially living in a place like Wakanda. But he definitely wasn’t super familiar with them. He stares at the Google search page for a solid five minutes just trying to figure out how to even begin. Eventually he types out ‘music from 1930s’ and a little bit of clicking on random links and videos eventually takes him to YouTube.

He spends the next several hours on videos of songs from back then, writing down the names and musicians of anything that sounds familiar or that he likes. It’s the biggest trip down memory lane he’d taken yet because despite not remembering the songs at first, the memories that surface hearing some of the songs are almost too much to handle.

He finds himself tapping his foot and mouthing along to the words to one of the songs when Erik speaks up from his doorway.

“What’dya up to man?” He says, coming in to see what’s on Bucky’s screen.

“This is the kinda stuff that you listened to right? Back when you was a kid?” Erik asks, nodding along to the beat in interest.

“Yeah. Shuri’s always listening to music and it got me thinking about the stuff I used to listen to.”

“I can help you make a playlist of your faves if you want?” He offered, looking at the handwritten list Bucky had. “Save you the time tryin to find ‘em again.”

A few days later Bucky is on his way into Shuri’s lab when he hears familiar notes of trumpet blasting from her speakers. He knew the song, by this point he’d listened to it probably dozens of times over the last few days. But this version was different, the words and singer and basic tune he recognized but it almost seemed to be like that EDM stuff Shuri listened to. He poked his head into the lab and saw Shuri sitting at her worktable, her back to the door. Her foot was tapping away in time with the music and Bucky smiled softly.

“Did Erik say something to you?” He commented, coming into the lab.

“He might have mentioned helping you out and given me a link to the playlist you made. The originals are not quite what I like to work to but turns out there are plenty of remixes online.” She explains. “A whole genre pretty much of songs that are inspired by those old songs but made for modern times. They call it electro swing.”

“That’s all well and good but we invented swing dancing to that music. If you say some of those are too slow for you I don’t know what you’re listening to.” He teased.

“Well then if you are so sure, show me how to dance mister music expert.” She said, standing with a challenging smirk.

When T’Challa came into the lab later he was greeted by the same trumpet Bucky had been, though this time it was joined by the rest of a classic brass band and roaring, excited laughter. He looked into the room just in time to see Bucky twirl Shuri in time with the music. On Bucky’s face was the widest smile T’Challa had seen on him yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs used for inspiration: 
> 
> Fury by Rogue (EDM for Shuri)
> 
> The entire Black Panther album by Kendrick Lamar but mainly Paramedic! (For Erik)
> 
> Toxic by Britney Spears, Since u Been gone by Kelly Clarkson, all the Beyoncé (For Peter)
> 
> Bei mir bist du schön by the Andrews Sisters, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by the Andrews Sisters, Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N47TJ9psd84 just like this entire video for Bucky
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpURtc882qc Shuri’s electro swing discovery


	30. Nakia

Bucky hears about Nakia well before he ever meets her. Shuri and T’Challa frequently mention her or reference her, especially in relation to their growing American outreach program. He assumes she must be working on that and isn’t actually present in Wakanda and figures he’ll meet her eventually.

He eventually learns she is a War Dog, one of Wakanda’s elite spies that spend most of their time away from Wakanda itself. He hears little about them, their work and missions not meant for his ears. He doesn’t mind not knowing, he has no reason besides simple curiosity and he knows a thing or two about the importance of secret missions anyway.

Shuri goes to America for a few weeks to do in-depth work with the outreach program and Bucky stays behind, not thinking too much of it. A couple days after she leaves, a new woman arrives in his village. She knows everyone and they greet her with excitement and joy, as if she has been gone some time. She’s unassuming, with a sweet smile and kind eyes. He learns her name is Nakia and while the thought that she is the same women Shuri and T’Challa speak so highly of does cross his mind, he brushes it off. There is no way a women like her could be one of the best War Dogs Wakanda has. She is far far too nice to be a spy. Besides, two different people can have the same name.

She moves into a hut nearby to his but isn’t often there. She spends a lot of time going between the different villages of the River Tribe, he learns her Uncle is the elder representative for the tribe and that explains her busyness. When she is in his village she makes an effort to get to know him and the gesture reinforces his thought that if the whole world were as accepting as Wakandans, there would be no conflict ever again.

 _“I have heard that you split your time between the village and the Capital. Which do you prefer?”_ She asks, sitting next to him by the river as they watch the fishing boats go back and forth with their trawling nets.

He thinks for a long moment, eating a piece of the sweetbread from the plate between them.

 _“I like them both equally.”_ He says thoughtfully. _“I grew up in a big city, probably the busiest city in America. I was used to the noise and the crowds and the sights. The Capital reminds me of that, maybe not to the full extent of what New York is but close enough. But the peace out here, it’s not something I got to experience much in my life until I came here. I like it.”_

 _“You speak so fondly of Wakanda, like you have lived here your entire life.”_ She says with a smile, taking a piece of bread for herself. _“It’s nice to hear that someone not born here can feel as we do.”_

They become fast friends. With Shuri gone he is admittedly somewhat lonely. Erik is still in Wakanda and Bucky still patrols the Riverlands with him once or twice a week depending on when he comes by, but most of his time is spent with Nakia. He doesn’t know the full story and doesn’t think it’s his place to ask but he knows she’s at least been away from the village for the past year or so.

He guesses she must have a fiancé in another village or something along those lines due to some of the comments he hears the women of the village make to her and the way she blushes in response. Again he doesn’t pry, figuring she gets enough from the others and doesn’t need it from him. She must have been spending her time with him; maybe it was part of the courting practices of Wakanda. He knows very little about that and it could make sense that living with the person you are going to marry is part of it.

She asks a lot about his life and his thoughts about it and Wakanda. At one point in time he would have been suspicious of such behavior but after living here for more than a year he knows that anyone who asks never means any harm. They are just curious and talking about it always helps. He talks mostly about what he remembers from before and during his time in the army and she thinks its nice how highly he talks of Steve. She mentions wanting to get the chance to meet him and how he sounds like an honorable man. Bucky can’t help but agree.

He misses Steve. He’d grown used to being away from him but even the short times they had spent together, despite his mind being not what it should be, were enough to remind him who he had grown up with.

Nakia leaves the village and tells him she won’t be back for a while. He assures her it’s all right, figuring she was going back to her fiancé. They hug before she leaves and she inputs her code on his Kimoyo beads so he can contact her if he wants.

Shuri comes back to Wakanda the next day and it’s like she never left. She asks what he got up to while she was gone, joking that he probably did nothing but read and sit by the river. He doesn’t disagree, he did finish the book he’d been working on, but he also doesn’t mention Nakia. There is no reason to tell her about every random friend he makes.

Bucky generally spends more time in the lab than the palace despite being always welcome. Ramonda complains with a motherly tone that she never sees him anymore so he decides to go to dinner at the palace that night.

He sits down in the seat he usually picks, about halfway down the long table. Ramonda is already there, sipping on a cup of tea, but neither T’Challa nor Shuri are present yet. Erik only attends ‘family dinner’ sometimes so Bucky doesn’t expect him to be joining them.

Shuri arrives next, tablet in hand and tapping away. _“Shuri”_ Her mother warns and the Princess puts her tablet away. They talk amicably for a few minutes until T’Challa arrives, Nakia of all people a step behind him.

 _“Nakia? What are you doing here?”_ Bucky asks and the Royal family looks at him in confusion.

“How do you know Nakia?” Shuri asks.

“She lives in the village. How do you know her?”

Shuri chuckles a little but it’s T’Challa who speaks up “She is my betrothed.” He has a fond smile on his face as he takes Nakia’s hand.

Suddenly everything clicks and Bucky looks at Nakia “You’re That Nakia. Well I feel stupid now. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Did you think I was just going to brag about being engaged to the King? You should know me better than that Bucky.” She says with a teasing smile.

“I guess you’re right.” He chuckles and she then turns the conversation to the work in America, wanting updates after her time away.

Bucky stays quiet, simply content to listen to the progress. He thinks that it was almost better that he got to know Nakia without the reputation that preceded her clouding his thoughts he met Nakia the person, rather than Nakia the War Dog. He liked it better that way.


	31. Words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little smidge of a thing about Bucky healing.

In the first few weeks of his recovery, Bucky came to Shuri ten times with the same soundless request.

He would hand her a bundle of ten post-it notes, wrinkled and torn from repeated anxious crumpling. On each was a single word written three ways, Cyrillic, English, and phonetically. She would nod and tap at her Kimoyo beads to summon a Dora Milaje guard.

Bucky would cross the room to lie down on the examining table and Shuri would follow, crossing Vibranium reinforced straps across his legs and chest. She would make some teasing comments about his trust in her until whatever Dora arrived, then Shuri would clear her throat and read.

The first time they had tested the words, T’Challa had been present, Black Panther necklace across his chest, a precaution in case Shuri’s treatment had not been successful. He trusted her, Bucky trusted her, everyone trusted her but they just had to be sure. She had spent several hours muttering to herself in broken Russian just to make sure she had the pronunciation completely correct.

Bucky had put his good hand on hers before they strapped him down the first time and said “Thank you. No matter what happens.”

Nothing had happened besides Bucky having a near panic attack from the fear that bubbled up hearing the first word. Shuri pronounced him cured and T’Challa had given him a smile of comradery.

Bucky started out of bed from a nightmare that night.

The next day he asked Shuri to write the words, on small separate pieces of paper that he could keep on him so he always knew where they were. She did as he asked, shuffling their order just in case. She thought he wanted them to desensitize himself and she was right to a degree. He thought that maybe by having them in a physical form, he could stave off the worry that came from trying to fight an intangible foe.

He woke up with a shout of fear that night and decided to watch the sunrise instead of trying to sleep some more.

“Just please. I need to be sure.” He begged, handing Shuri the words.

“We tried it already. They cannot affect you anymore. I promise your mind did revert back.”

“Please.” He begged softly and he must have sounded so miserable that she indulged him, expression softening and giving a small sigh. She opened her mouth to read but he stopped her.

“There needs to be precautions, just in case. I need to be tied down. You need protection. If something goes wrong, I could kill you.”

They both knew that wasn’t exactly how it worked but right now he needed the validation so Shuri asked Okoye to come to her lab and Bucky let himself be strapped to the table.

She read the words with the same calm speed any of the handlers ever had, Russian clipped and properly accented. Had it been anyone else in any other situation he would have worried that they were serious.

True to her promise nothing happened and Shuri lightly teased him for not believing her or in her abilities but the next time he came she didn’t argue. She could see the bags forming under his eyes, the lack of sleep he was getting, the fear of those words and their power keeping him awake or waking him from restless sleep each night.

The ninth time they went through this exercise he found himself copying the words in his own head, as though counting them down. The fear and tension that usually accompanied them was not there and his mind even wandered a little while he lay on the table. He very nearly slept through that night.

After the tenth time Shuri jokingly said “Same time tomorrow then?” as she unstrapped him.

Bucky sat up and calmly looked at the scraps of paper she had handed back to him. The letters didn’t blur or swim in his vision in either language. His heartbeat didn’t quicken and his lungs kept a steady pace. He took a moment to read them to himself and felt nothing. Not the slightest twinge of uncertainty.

Confidently, he stacked the notes together and ripped them in half, then again and again until he had shreds of paper out of what used to be his words.

“No. This was the last time.”


	32. Color

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short little thing. Next chapter might not be for a week or so but there is more coming! Enjoy!

It’s no secret that colors are important to the people of Wakanda.

He knows each tribe has its respective color and it’s own meaning. He knows green is for the River Tribe, a tribute to the lush vegetation that grows along the banks. Red is for the mining tribe because of the rich red clay that is found in the soil and earth of the mountains. Blue is for the border tribe because of the vast unmarred blue sky that they see. The merchant tribe is represented by all the colors because of their connections to all of the tribes collectively. And Purple is for the Panther tribe, the royalty of Wakanda, because of the color of the heart shaped herb they protect.

Beyond those, Bucky knew people had colors that can represent them to their families and friends. Shuri had everyone she spoke frequently with as a designated color on her Kimoyo beads. Bucky knew T’Challa was a rich royal purple. He knew that Ramonda was pure white. He knew Erik was gold. Okoye was scarlet red and Nakia was forest green. He gathered by the sheepish, embarrassed look Shuri had when her beads lit up bright firetruck red, that even Peter had earned his own color. It took him a while to realize what color he was to her.

He had thought for a long time that he had been white, but after seeing her answer a call from her mother, he realized he’d been mistaken. Her notes on his arm were written in a color somewhere between light gray and white and he figured that must be his color. Her notes seemed to always match the color of the person they were about, her way of organizing her thoughts and ideas, so he put two and two together. That was the end of it for a long time.

“I changed colors?” He asked, looking over her shoulder at her notes on the new White Wolf suit.

“What do you mean?” She asked, glancing at him and then back at the notes.

“You used to use a grayish white color for me, now its silver.” He explained, pointing at her lettering.

She squinted a little at it “I guess you are right. Oh I remember why I changed it, because of the Vibranium. You are the only one who understands as well as me what it feels like to use, the true connection with it. I changed it after I finished your arm.” She explained casually, tapping his metal arm with her stylus.

Bucky blinked in surprise at her explanation. She was equating him to herself and he wasn’t sure he really deserved that honor. Vibranium was precious to Shuri; it was what she dedicated herself to. There was no one in the world that knew more about it and cared more about it than she did. She was basically a hero in her own right with her abilities with the substance. For her to designate him as silver because of Vibranium, well that meant far more to him than she seemed to realize.

“Well I’m honored you think so highly of me.” He said, trying to sound teasing.

“It is just a color.” She said with a shrug.

“Not to me. Don’t think so little of your decisions kid.” He said fondly, moving to ruffle her hair as she ducked out of the way.

“Crazy white guy.” She teased with a smile.

“But still your favorite.”


	33. Spider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops I lied, I had time to post the next chapter before I left for Spring Break. This will be the last one for a week or so, hopefully you guys like it!

As it turned out, the first one to come find Bucky for reasons of kindness wasn’t Steve, but Natasha Romanov.

Bucky was sitting at the desk in his room, Spotify open on the computer. He was working on trying more songs from his day to add to his personal playlist. Erik had offered to help but Bucky had insisted on doing it himself. Just because he may technically be around a hundred years old didn’t mean that he couldn’t figure out how to work a computer.

One of his Kimoyo beads lit up a light lavender shade and he heard his door open. He was tapping his foot along with the music and asked, _“You ever heard Sinatra Shuri?”_

“He was probably before her time.” A woman said and Bucky turned in an instant to see who the newcomer was.

“Natalia?”

“Natasha now actually.”

Shuri looked at the older woman from her place closer to the doorway and asked, “You speak Xhosa?”

Natasha’s eyes didn’t leave Bucky but she shrugged “Context, he’s listening to Sinatra and he said your name.” Shuri frowned petulantly at the response.

“What are you doing here?” Bucky asked. Of all people from the Avengers or former Avengers, she was not the one he expected to see first, or at all for that matter. When they had been working on recovering his memories, it included the early HYDRA ones. The training and things that happened away from the missions as well.

_“There were girls they used to have me train. From some place they called the Red Room.” He was telling Shuri. “They couldn’t have been much older than you are but so” he trailed off, closing his eyes and putting his real hand to his head. “They were so broken. We all were. They would be told to fight me, to kill me and we’d fight over and over until their trainers would call them off. It must have been like watching dogs fight for the handlers.”_

_“Do you remember any of them specifically? Do we need to worry about them?” Shuri asked carefully, questions like this occasionally came up when they talked about his memories. Better to be safe than to have some threat running around in the world._

_“I don’t know what happened to all of them but there was one girl who was so much better than the rest. She was the only one who nearly managed to kill me.” He let out a scoff and muttered “Sometimes I wish she had.”_

_“Do you think she is still alive? What was her name?”_

_“I’d be disappointed if she wasn’t. They called her Natalia, no idea if she’s still using that name.”_

“You were at the airport but you let us go. Whose side are you on? Steve’s or Stark’s?” Bucky realized, looking her in the eyes.

She looked away “I ran into Steve in Argentina. He told me where you were and asked me to come check on how things were going.”

“Why did he not come himself?” Shuri asked, sounding a little offended.

“He meant no offense your highness, I assure you. We decided it might be a little suspicious and admittedly he’s not the most stealthy or inconspicuous. He didn’t want to risk anyone realizing that Bucky was here.”

Something in Bucky stomach twisted at the explanation. Their worry and reasoning made sense. Natasha was a trained spy and Steve; well Steve was more of a battering ram then a stealth agent. But still, the Steve he had known would have found a way to come to him.

“He know I’m awake?” Bucky asked, the question more directed to Shuri though his eyes were still on Natasha.

“T’Challa attempted to call him on the burner phone he left for that purpose but it was never answered despite how many times we called. We assume it was destroyed but without it we had no way of knowing where he was.”

Again Bucky was a little peeved but also again it wasn’t Shuri or T’Challa’s fault. They tried but extenuating circumstances prevented success. “He must trust you if he sent you in Barton’s place, at least he was on our side. Or are they all still in prison for helping Steve?”

“A few days after Siberia there was an escape from the Raft prison, four enhanced humans but no names released and footage to trace. Take from that what you will.”

Bucky didn’t miss the little smirk that appeared on Shuri’s face over Natasha’s shoulder.

“So you’re the one he found. Just casually in Argentina.” Bucky said suspiciously. _“Or did you figure out I was here and come on your own Natalia. Do Stark’s dirty work for him and kill me in secret so he didn’t have to worry about me anymore? Or maybe you wanted to kill me yourself? Get back in the good graces of the US after the treason you pulled that day.”_ He said, switching to Russian as he stood up, towering over her. _“Have you even seen Steve since we left that airport?”_

To her credit, Natasha stood her ground and took his criticism and suspicion without so much as a flinch. “This was never about me trying to take you down. Not since Washington. That was about the Accords and Zemo turned you into a scapegoat to try and tear the Avengers apart. You’ve done a very good job at keeping yourself a secret but people on ‘our side’ know you’re here. Tony knows you’re here. Eventually he will try to take you in.”

She turned away abruptly and started to walk to the door but stopped and looked back “Steve was worried about you so he asked me to come and try to see how you were. Once he knows you’re doing well, he should be here as soon as he can.” She turned to Shuri as Okoye stepped in to escort Natasha “Thank you for allowing me in your highness.” Okoye gave Bucky and Shuri a look and then she and Natasha were gone.

_“I’m sorry. I did not realize. I would have told N’Jadaka to turn her away if I knew it would upset you.”_

“S’not your fault. I don’t think anyone ever knows what she’s planning or what goes through her head. Damn Russian assassins.” He sat back down and turned to rest his elbows on the desk, putting his head in his hands.

“I think I’m just going to stay her for the rest of tonight. Tell your mom I’m sorry for skipping dinner.”


	34. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look I'm back just like that with another chapter. This one is a somewhat serious so I'll try and get some fluff out pretty soon.

Things were not so simple in the aftermath of Tony Stark’s discovery of Bucky’s whereabouts.

T’Challa disappeared for nearly two weeks to attend meetings in Berlin, Vienna and New York with the various groups of the UN and the UN as a whole. There were questions on if by supposedly sheltering a known fugitive, because no one had any proof past Stark’s claims that Bucky was actually in Wakanda, if T’Challa had violated the Sokovia Accords.

Under the accords, Stark had every right to arrest Bucky but they did not let him cross sovereign borders to do so without the permission of the country he planned to enter. Without T’Challa’s (and technically Erik’s) word, no one could enter Wakanda in pursuit of Bucky. The original purpose of that particular rule was to keep the Avengers from leaving a trail of destruction behind them as they hunted down threats, now it was being exploited to keep Bucky safe. To appease the UN, T’Challa did consent to an investigation but only a small one, assuring the UN that he knew when people entered and left his country so Barnes could not possibly be there in the first place.

The investigation was slated to last two weeks and was soon but far enough in advance to give Bucky time to prepare. It was trivial work setting him up with a place to hide away from the eyes of the UN, a packed bag, a personal hologram generator made especially for him and a job at the preserve that would keep him plenty busy over the next two weeks. However, part of the deal was that Stark would be allowed to enter Wakanda and investigate as he deemed fit. What was the harm if Wakanda had nothing to hide?

“I could not deny him without rousing suspicion. I am sorry for this.” T’Challa said to Bucky once he returned from the meetings.

“You have no reason to apologize, you’ve already done and risked so much for me. Besides I’ve spent a lot of time hiding from the Avengers, what’s two more weeks?”

Erik was not so willing and accepting of the investigation. “Stark pushed you into a corner.” He said bitterly, leaning against the wall of T’Challa’s office. “Betcha his lawyers have combed every inch of those Accords to figure out how best he could exploit them but there ain’t nothing we can do about it now. My being here’s another problem. If they figure out who I am, I’m gonna get court marshaled. I deserted way back before all that shit.” He didn’t speak often of his time before Wakanda or mention even obliquely about what happened once he’d arrived. The fact that he was talking about it showed his concern. “Stark ain’t know who I am but he might look into me if I hang around. Prob best if I split while they’re here.”

“We can arrange something” T’Challa began but Erik shook his head.

“I’m good at blending in and I ain’t a white boy. Lemme do this my way, these are my people, UN suits won’t even be able to tell me apart from anyone else.” With a nod of agreement from T’Challa, Erik left the room.

When the time finally came for the two suspicious people to disappear, things were oddly solemn. Shuri kept making adjustments to Bucky’s hologram even though it was already perfect and T’Challa was fiddling nervously with his father’s ring. Erik had a bag slung over one shoulder and looked torn between wanting to comfort his cousins or just getting this done with. He was Bucky’s ride out to the preserve so that everyone else could worry about hosting a group of foreigners for the first time in Wakanda’s history.

“I will come visit as soon as I can.” Shuri quietly told Bucky, who just responded by putting his hand on her shoulder, he too had a bag slung over his shoulder.

“I’ve survived a long time without you kid, especially in hiding. I’m not worried about anything. I’ll see you when you come pick me up.” He said with a smile, stepping back and saluting both siblings before following Erik onto the ship.

 _“Stark is a pompous ass.”_ Shuri said as they watched the ship fly away.

 _“That is the impression I always got from him, yes. But allies like Stark are important to keep.”_ T’Challa said, ever the King he had been raised to be.

 _“Does not mean I have to like him.”_ Shuri replied before turning away and heading into the palace.


	35. Soldier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I say fluff? I meant more Bucky healing/character study stuff. This was inspired directly from the end credits scene of Black Panther because I saw it again last night. In the scene, Bucky and Shuri don't quite seem to be the close friends I have been portraying them as so this is the 'excuse' I came up with to maybe explain that.

When he first moved away from the Capital, Bucky sometimes forgot who he was.

He would wake up to the ceiling of a mud hut or to painted faces of children. He would be wearing unfamiliar clothes and the stump of his arm was wrapped in a brightly colored cloth sling. There were some personal effects on the walls and the small table of the hut, suggesting that he at least had some sort of life in this place. The children would run out of the hut giggling and shouting in a language he did not understand. He would follow them out, unsure of what else to do and waiting for him would be a young woman with her hair in an intricate braided fashion.

She would greet him somewhat cautiously, calling him Sergeant Barnes and on good days he would correct her instantly and insist he call her Bucky. She would smile, repeat the name and then he’d remember where he was and what was going on.

On bad days she would call him Sergeant Barnes and he would snap to attention, the urge drilled to his very core. But it never felt, forced, it was as though it had been a lesson taught over and over until it was second nature. In the military, when addressed by your rank you would stand at attention no matter who was addressing you. Then he’d remember, yes he was in the military. He fought for the United States in World War Two but World War Two was long over.

Gently, with a kind smile she would call him Bucky and tell him he was safe and protected in Wakanda. That her name was Shuri and she was the one in charge of his recovery. She would explain what was going on until his memories caught up with the present and he would apologize sincerely to her. Sometimes it took only the mention of Wakanda, sometimes it took much longer.

After the first few bad days she asked to do some tests, worried that spending time alone was making his recovery worse. She knew she had removed all of HYDRA’s triggers and training and even he admitted that the urges he got on the bad days were from military training, not HYDRA’s programming. HYDRA was the last of their worries.

Eventually she determined it was a problem with his hippocampus and the way it was interacting with parts of his brain that had housed the HYDRA programming. To remove the programming, Shuri had effectively taken away the memory of the words and their effects. That left a gap that his brain was trying to fill. When he woke up not knowing where he was, it was likely because his brain had overloaded itself and had as she described it ‘shorted out’.

Luckily all it took to fix was her saying something related to his memory and it would fix itself. Usually his nickname did the job. But the bad days, she couldn’t figure out what set them apart.

After a few more bad days she finally had a theory. His long-term memory was filling in the gaps with old memories, causing him immense confusion. His brain would tell him he was back before he had ever been found by HYDRA, back before he had even been captured with the rest of them 107th division after the failed mission to take out HYDRA way back during the war. His brain made him think he was back in the army until he realized he wasn’t.

Sometimes it was simple to do so. Shuri would tell him he was in Wakanda and he would put the pieces together and everything would right itself. Sometimes he wouldn’t believe her and she would tell him as much of his story as she knew. Once it had taken nearly all day before he believed her and when he realized what had happened he apologized for the rest of the night.

He started to keep a journal by his sleeping mat and wrote in it constantly. Memories from before the army, his time with HYDRA, the time after HYDRA, time in Wakanda with Shuri, anything and everything. After several weeks of this, the bad days were nonexistent and the even good days were few and far between.

Instead he would wake to the children and playfully grab at them, teasing them in Xhosa as he learned more and more. He would meet the villagers for the morning meal and converse with them over coffee. He did not need to be reminded who he was or where he was or how he got here. He had taken his memory into his own hands and fixed it with repeated usage until his brain got the program. His efforts even showed up on Shuri’s fancy charts and scans of his brain, solid proof that what he was doing was working.

He had the occasional lapse. A morning where he would wake up confused and unsure but he always had the journal next to him to remind him before he ever left his home.

‘Your name is James Buchanan Barnes. You like to be called Bucky. You were born in 1917 in New York. You were a soldier in the United States Military in World War Two. It is 2018. You are currently in Wakanda under the care of Princess Shuri. She is helping you restore your memory and learn how to be a person again. She can be trusted with any questions and will tell you the truth. There is no one to fear in Wakanda.’


	36. Stark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This became far longer than I had planned but that happens sometimes.

When Tony Stark crash lands in Nigeria, Bucky is the only one available to go help him.

T’Challa and Erik are both in Oakland with Okoye along as their guard. As much as Shuri dislikes Stark, she and Bucky both agree that they need to at least see if he is all right. So Bucky dons his White Wolf necklace and flies out to the crash site.

Stark is unconscious when he arrives, the Iron Man suit sitting in a small crater in the jungle. The suit is battered and singed and the light in the chest is flickering intermittently. He tries to call his name and wake him but quickly gives up, it’s a dangerous place to be in general and no place for Bucky to try and revive him properly. Carefully he carries Stark, suit and all, onto the ship. It is more effort than he expects and he struggles to get him up the ramp even with the extra strength granted to him by the super solider experiments.

“I have him on the ship, he’s still unconscious but he doesn’t look like he’s in good shape.”

“You worry about flying back here, I will run a scan to see if I can figure out what happened.”

The flight is silent aside from the soft hum of the scanners around Stark’s prone form. It gives Bucky plenty of time to think as he guides the ship towards Shuri’s lab. He was probably the person in the world that Stark hated most, due to his involvement with the death of Howard and Maria Stark.

‘What a kind way to put it.’ He thinks to himself. ‘My involvement. I’m their murderer. He has every right to be angry. It doesn’t matter that I was brainwashed, I still killed them in cold blood. Maybe I should just

“Ugh where am I?” Stark’s voice interrupts Bucky’s musings and he quickly reactivates the cowl of his suit, setting the ship to autopilot.

 _“You are safe Iron-Man.”_ He says in Xhosa, trying his best to give himself a Wakandan accent. It would be no use if his own Brooklyn accent gave him away.

Iron-Man’s faceplate deactivates and lifts away, Stark groaning in pain when he tries to reach up to fully remove it.

“Friday run scans” He commands but then frowns when there is no response. He turns to look towards Bucky and after a moment of confusion says “You’re T’Challa’s new sidekick aren’t you? You speak English?”

He shrugs but says “Some. Not well.” He hopes adding a roughness to his voice would disguise his English even more.

“Better than nothing.” Stark says, laying his head back against the table. He tries to lift his arms but quickly stops and lets out a hiss of pain. “Any idea what happened to me?”

“You crashed, Princess Shuri told me to investigate.”

He gives a little nod and tries to sit up but winces, his teeth clenching. “Okay yeah that’s not happening.” He mutters through gritted teeth. “Since I can’t move, I’m going to guess you put me on this ship and are taking me hopefully back to America.”

“Wakanda.” Bucky replies simply.

“Yeah bad plan, lots of people there don’t really like me.”

“Safer, you have many wounds. America is too far.”

“What, did you scan me or something with your fancy Wakandan tech?”

Bucky nods and Stark lets out a sigh that is choked off with another wince. The scan had shown some damage to his ribs that probably didn’t make sighing feel great.

“The Princess will help.” Bucky assures him, moving back to the pilots seat now that they were getting close.

“If she doesn’t kill me first. She hates me for trying to arrest her pet white boy.” He hears Stark mutter to himself and something about the comment makes Bucky bristle in frustration.

 _“He thinks you aren’t going to help him.”_ He tells Shuri when he contacts her to tell her that Stark is awake. _“Commented something about you hating him for trying to arrest me.”_

_“He’s not wrong but I’m not going to refuse to treat him. Who does he think I am? An American doctor?”_

_“_ _Shuri”_

 _“_ _Am I wrong?”_

“That the Princess?” Stark calls from the table and Shuri rolls her eyes.

_“I will see you soon. Good luck.”_

They land at the lab soon after and the moment the ramp lowers, a team of scientists board to slide Stark from the table to a gurney. Bucky follows them onto the lab elevator, a silent sentinel while Stark asks questions.

They get him to Shuri and she can’t keep the small smirk from her face as she runs her scanner over him more closely. “You are lucky Stark. You would not have been able to get home in your condition. If he had not found you and brought you here, you would likely have died.”

“Where’s T’Challa?”

“My brother is not in Wakanda right now.” She said, tapping at her tablet. “How do you manually remove the armor? We will need to do so to treat your injuries.”

“Unlock tools. In the heel of the boots, behind the jet. Don’t think I can activate the panel, you’ll have to pull it off.” He instructed.

Bucky shrugged but activated the Vibranium claws on his suit and cut the panel away, handing Shuri the small wrench-like tool hidden inside.

“So what’s your name man?” Stark asked, seemingly trying to make conversation as Shuri started to remove the panels of the suit.

“White Wolf.” Bucky says, arms crossed over his chest.

“What is with you guys and your color animal combo heroes?”

“Says the man in a suit originally made of iron.” 

“Touché Princess. But you aren’t going to take off the mask? Don’t trust me? You know your King and I are apparently allies. Don’t believe it myself sometimes but apparently we still are.”

“No.”

“Whatever, either way. Thanks for the save. Guess I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”

Bucky looked at Shuri, their eyes meeting.

 _"Your choice.”_ She said as if reading his mind. _“But I would not advise showing him just yet.”_

It takes nearly an hour but Shuri manually unlocks each and every joint. _“Bandages”_ She requests from Bucky, and turns to her scientists and doctors, speaking to them in technical terms. From what Bucky gathers, they’ll have to work quickly to staunch the bleeding when they remove the armor.

“The pressure of your suit is keeping your injuries in from getting worse and keeping you from bleeding out.” She explains to Stark as several scientists take places around Stark. Bucky steps back to be out of the way until Shuri asks for his help.

The next few minutes are a flurry of movement and shine of Vibranium and glimpses of blood. When everything is bandaged and broken bones reset, Shuri pulls up the full body scan so Stark can see for himself.

“Multiple broken ribs, fractured pelvis, broken femur, nearly punctured lung, several major contusions, large lacerations to your torso and legs,  if it were not for your suit you would have died on impact. If he had not found you, you would be dead by now.” She explained. “You will spend the night here in the lab, you can return home tomorrow. ” She said, swiping away the screen.

“Where’re the casts then? This isn’t the first time I’ve broken however many bones. I know how this works.”

“Unnecessary. You will be healed by the end of the day tomorrow. Maybe some soreness”

“Hold on, what? A broken femur alone takes 4-6 months to heal, not 24 hours.”

Shuri chuckled and Bucky couldn’t keep the smile from his face, despite it not being visible. “Welcome to Wakanda Mr. Stark.” Bucky said.

It was late in the night and Bucky and Shuri were back to their normal routine. He was sitting in the lab while she did check-ups on the suit, making sure there had been no damage.

“He isn’t going to be happy when he learns it’s me.”

“You saved his life. He would be dead if we had left him out there. You saw his wounds, he knows it would not have ended well.”

“Why are we even doing this? He’s not going to forgive me. It doesn’t matter to him that I wasn’t myself. All he cares is that I killed his parents.”

“All you need to do is show that you have changed. You are taking the first steps by helping T’Challa. What happened today is a step in the right direction.”

“Did Erik ever apologize for what he did?” Bucky asked, causing Shuri to pause.

Eventually she said, “He did. Yes. Not to everyone but to my mother and to me and Okoye and the family of the Dora Milaje he killed. He and T’Challa came to some sort of agreement that I do not know anything about but I assume an apology was part of it.”

“How do I apologize for what I did? Erik killed one person, I killed so many more. How do I tell Stark that I am sorry for murdering his parents? For destroying his family?”

“The same way you are showing you have changed. One step at a time.” She said, smiling gently at him, walking over to rest her hand on his.

Neither of them took notice of the change in the heart rate monitor that signified Tony had been awake to hear the conversation, nor did they notice the way it quickened as Tony realized what he heard.


	37. Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short follow up to the previous chapter

“You’re not Wakandan.” Stark says the next morning before any sort of greeting. Bucky had come to bring Shuri breakfast and had found Stark sitting in what Bucky considered his chair, playing with a tablet. He had on his suit as a precaution to hide his identity but apparently hadn’t hidden his voice so well.

“No.” Bucky replied, setting the food down on Shuri’s worktable, the Princess nowhere to be found.

“Princess said something about needing a Vibranium something or other, whatever she meant, she’ll be back in a bit.” Tony said, seeing Bucky look around the room. “But back to you. So there’s three of you then? T’Challa, the Black Panther. The other guy who guards the border or whatever, I assume he has a suit. And you. What about you makes you so special to get a suit identical in design to the Kings?”

Stark had stood by this point, no limp to his movements as he stepped closer to Bucky.

“I earned it. I proved myself to the people of Wakanda. I am worthy to be the hero from their legends.”

“Yeah you seem like a good guy, certainly helped me out of a tight place. On that alone you have my gratitude, obviously the Princess and her brother trust you. But who are you?” Stark said, eyes squinting as he examined Bucky.

“Why do you want to know?”

“I don’t like not knowing things. I like to be in the loop. Right now I’m out of the loop. Look man, I’m not gonna hurt you. It’d be a pretty dick move to hurt the guy who saved my life.” They looked at each other for a long moment before he moved back to the table to pull on the jacket that was sitting folded at the end.

“Fine, we all have our secrets. Clearly you’re doing something good for Wakanda and working on doing it for the world. I’m not here to fault that. Amazing stuff you have here by the way, it’ll be good to see what it can do to help the rest of the world. Anyway, you’re taking some pretty big steps. I hope to see more of you in the future, White Wolf. Though I’d work on the name.”

Bucky felt his heartbeat falter for a moment at Tony’s words. Something about the tone he used felt far too intentional for his word choice to be coincidental. A change in Bucky’s posture must have made the realization clear to Stark, because Tony gave Bucky a knowing smile as he headed towards the door.

“Pad’s this way right? I’m supposed to meet with one of those scary ladies to give me a ride home.”

“Stark” Bucky called, causing Tony to stop and turn around.

“I’m sorry for the trouble Wakanda has caused you. The people here are more kind-hearted than any I have ever met. Being around them changes you. You should try to visit more often, see Wakanda and it’s people for yourself. See what she might be able to do for you. ”

“See, knew you spoke English.” Tony said with a smile. “Later Wolfy.” He gave a two-fingered salute as he stepped onto the elevator and was whisked away.

Bucky let the cowl fall away as he watched the elevator climb and for once, felt like he’d made a step in the right direction.


	38. Hope

For Bucky the day starts no different than any other.

He wakes up in his hut, the morning sunlight coming in through one of the small windows, illuminating the motes of dirt and dust in the air. He sits up and stretches, scratching at his head. He can faintly smell the scent of wood smoke and cooking meat coming from the fires scattered throughout the village. Despite it being fairly early, his Kimoyo beads tell him it’s just after seven in the morning, there is already the sounds of people bustling about and starting their days.

It’s been long enough now that some of the novelty of having him in the village has worn off and the children aren’t there the moment he steps out his door so he is surprised when someone is waiting for him this morning.

 _“I have something to show you White Wolf.”_ The girl says, taking his hand and pulling him towards the center of the village.

_“What is it Elula?”_

_“I cannot say. I must show you.”_ She says and he laughs but has nothing else pressing to worry about so he lets her lead.

She takes him all the way through the village and out past the border on the other side, showing no sign of stopping anytime soon.

 _“Do you parents know what you are up to? Won’t they worry about you?”_ Elula was older than some of the children who were fascinated with him, nearing 10 or 11 years old if he had to guess, but any child leaving the village alone worried him.

 _“They know I am with you, there is nothing I have to be scared of.”_ Her parents trust flattered him and she did have a point, Wakanda was generally a very safe place and he was more than capable of handling any would be attacks in the form of animals.

They keep going, headed towards the forest that separates their village from the next. There are paths through it that are well traveled and worn but she doesn’t seem to be heading for any of those. She takes him into the forest and through the maze of tall jungle trees, her eyes searching for some sign unknown to him.

Finally she takes a sharp turn and stops in front of a large tree with a hollow in its base. _“I found this yesterday when I was exploring with my brother.”_ She gets on her knees and crawls into the hollow, gesturing for him to copy her.

 _“Look”_ She says, pointing towards the back where a small plant bud is growing. At first he thinks she brought him all this way for a pretty flower but as his body blocks the sunlight from outside he can see that the bud is glowing faintly purple. He reaches out to touch it carefully and can nearly feel it thrum with energy.

 _“What is it?”_ He asks, trying to squeeze into the hollow to get a closer look. The sunlight fully blocked reveals that not only is the bud glowing but its roots are as well, twisting lines beneath the soil.

 _“We don’t know. I thought you might.”_ She admits, her eyes fixated on the bud. He shakes his head and backs out of the hollow, sitting back on his knees.

 _“I don’t know but I’m sure Princess Shuri will.”_ He says, fiddling with his Kimoyo beads to contact the Princess.

“Show me?” She requests after he briefly explains. He climbs back into the hollow, wrist outstretched. “It looks like” she starts to say but falls silent when the purple glow fills the hollow, her eyes wide.

“I will be there as soon as I can. Do not move.”

 _“Whatever it is, it seems important.”_ He tells Elula. _“You did a good job finding it I think. Shuri seems very excited.”_ The girl smiles widely with pride.

Shuri arrives not 15 minutes later, barely letting the ship land before she’s off. She has a scanner in hand when she approaches, crawling into the hollow without hesitation or thought about her clothes.

“Block the light?” She asks and Bucky complies, hearing Shuri gasp from the tree.

 _“Praise the ancestors”_ She says and lets out a little cheer. She crawls out of the hollow and furiously starts tapping at the palm sized-tablet scanner she has, a wide smile on her face.

“What is it?” Bucky asks, as curious as Elula seems to be.

“She found it?” Shuri asks, gesturing to the girl. Bucky nods and Shuri turns to her _“What is your name?”_

 _“Elula, Princess Shuri.”_ She says, crossing her arms in a Wakandan salute.

 _“You have done a great service to Wakanda. Do you know what this plant is?”_ Elula shakes her head and Shuri’s smile widens. _“It is the bud of the Heart-Shaped herb. Do you remember what that is from your lessons?”_

Bucky knows he’s heard the name before. Way back when he first started to become friends with T’Challa. He’d asked Shuri what kind of exercise T’Challa did to get his strength and speed, as to him it seemed very similar to the enhancements provided by the Super Soldier serum. She’d delved into what seemed like an old legend about their Goddess Bast and the creation of Wakanda, explaining how the Black Panther came to be and the source of his powers. But had trailed off in the end, making a quiet comment about how T’Challa would be the last Black Panther because the herb garden had been lost. She didn’t explain how or why only that there were no more herbs to provide the power.

Elula’s eyes widen in understanding and she looks up at Shuri _“It gives the Black Panther his strength.”_

_“Exactly. This might be the very last one growing in all of Wakanda.”_

“I thought there weren’t anymore of them?” Bucky whispered to Shuri.

“I did not think so. She has just proven that theory wrong and if I can manage the genetic splicing needed, we can grow more. She might have saved the future of our country.”

Bucky takes Elula back to the village while Shuri and her team start to look more deeply into how the herb had taken root and the conditions that had allowed it to grow. It is his honor to go to her parents and explain what their daughter had found. The adults of Wakanda knew about what Killmonger had done to the sacred garden and how important finding this one bud was to Wakanda’s future. Even if Elula herself didn’t quite understand the importance, the tears of pride and joy her parents shed were enough to help her realize she had done something very very good. Her whole family is invited to the Capital to meet with the royal family and tour the palace as a reward.

And when Elula and her friends discover another bud growing in the same part of the jungle as the first, Bucky is the first to know about it.


	39. New York

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive! To make up for my disappearance here is part 1 of a two part mini thing. It started as one whole chapter but was getting too long so I decided to divide it. Expect part 2 tomorrow!

“So you’re from New York right?” Peter says awkwardly. He and Bucky are in Shuri’s lab, Peter visiting on his Spring Break and Bucky getting software updates for his arm. Shuri had run off to check on something with the maglev trains, leaving the two alone.

He can’t exactly leave with his arm plugged into one of Shuri’s computers so instead he gives Parker his best ‘old man’ look as Shuri had dubbed it, the expression that was supposed to convey ultimate annoyance without much malice.

“Kid I haven’t been to New York since like the 40s.” Bucky says bluntly. It’s not that he hates Parker, in fact quite the opposite. He’s a good kid and is good for Shuri. It’s just that the kid seems to try too hard with anyone besides Shuri. He just can’t seem to relax around anyone else, especially Erik and Bucky. Admittedly it does make sense why he’s nervous around Bucky, the Kid is Stark’s prodigy, Stark hates Bucky put two and two together and it’s a miracle the Kid is even willing to be in the same room as Bucky alone.

After the horrible first impression Bucky had made with the accords incident and with Erik when Parker first came to Wakanda, Shuri had encouraged him to just ‘be himself around Peter’ to show him that he was all fixed because no matter how many times Shuri said it and showed Peter the data, he was still unsure that Bucky wasn’t playing some long game and was planning to murder the entire Royal family.

Bucky sighs heavily “Yeah I’m from New York. Brooklyn.” Okay, he’s gonna give the Kid a chance.

“I was just, uh, wondering what it was like, like back then. Ya know, like a hundred years ago.”

“It was not a hundred years ago.” Bucky points out, eyes narrowing in irritation. He lived there last during the 1940s not the dawn of time!

“But it’s like the same thing.”

Bucky rolled his eyes but said,“It was different obviously. Weren’t as many lights, electricity was expensive. My ma could barely afford the bill when I was a kid. Empire state building was the tallest building in the world, taller than anything we could have imagined. Brooklyn was it’s own place though, like a whole different world than the New York City people thought of. People only thought Manhattan counted as New York.”

“Still do.” Peter muttered, rolling his eyes.

“But it was where all the action was. If we wanted to do anything at night, we’d have to leave at like lunchtime to get over there. And no girls wanted to spend time with a couple of nobodies from Brooklyn so we’d dress in the best clothes we had and pretend to be fancy ritzy guys but they’d rarely buy it.”

He was getting lost in his memories now, a small smile on his face. “And Steve was so small back then, the only angle we could ever work was the runt of a rich family and course that’s the least believable thing on the planet. And then the war started and everything was all about war bonds and joining the army and of course I got in without a question but Steve, he had no chance from the start. He had the guts and the patriotism to be the best damn soldier the country had ever seen but he just wasn’t healthy enough. I swear he had more identities than a Russian spy. Just so he could apply in different cities. Last I saw him he’d been giving it another go and then the next he was saving us from HYDRA and he was bigger than anyone I’d ever seen. Never really heard the story on how that happened.” He trialed off thoughtfully but a beep from Shuri’s computer startled him out of his mind.

He glanced at the screen seeing ‘100% complete’ in big block lettering. He disconnected the cables and stood up, sliding the access panel shut in a now familiar move. “Like I said, it’s been a long time.”

Shuri came down the ramp with a smile, seeing the update done but before she could say anything Bucky said “I’ll leave you guys alone.” Walking quickly past her and out of the lab.

“What just happened?” he heard Shuri ask as the door slid shut behind him.


	40. Protect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two is a lot of monologuing from Bucky, gave me the chance to delve a bit more into his character and relationship with Steve.

Erik finds him later that evening, sitting outside his hut and looking out across the river.

“You been thinkin bout him right? Why he hasn’t come yet.” Erik said, sitting down next to Bucky and producing a flask from some hidden pocket and passing it to Bucky. The sun was beginning to set, color just starting to leech into the sky. Bucky takes a swig from the flask, it’s not the Mampoer he expects, the fruit flavored liquor that the Wakandans drink that he can only compare to moonshine in the States. Instead its whiskey, straight and simple and while it burns his throat he can’t help but feel a little homesick.

“Yeah.” He says simply, passing the flask back. Erik takes another drink before screwing it shut and setting it aside.

“You know they tried. T’Challa told me he even asked Stark if he had heard anything from Rogers. No one knows where he went after he left Wakanda.”

“Old man probably broke the damn burner phone because he didn’t know how to use it.” Bucky said, grabbing the flask for himself and taking a drink, not really sure where the bitterness of his tone had come from.

“You’d think after all the trouble he went to to save me or fix me or whatever you want to call it, that he’d have checked in once or twice. It’s been more than a year since I woke up, nearly two since I went under and no sign of him ‘cept from Romanov. And God knows I don’t trust her no matter what she says. It’s like now that I remember everything I can’t stop thinking about him. He was my best friend; he came back for me and defended me and all that stuff. It used to be me doing that for him, now it’s the other way around. Feels weird.”

“Never really got a chance to meet the guy. Talked a lot ‘boutchu both in school though, ‘specially once I enlisted. Both of y’all were heroes. ‘S like I told Stark. My guys wanted us to be like you, before and after. Rogers was the poster boy but for us, our division, you were the real guy. ‘Course we were black ops, stealth and assassinations and shit. You were the sniper for your guys; makes sense why we’d look to you over the guy wearing the star-spangled eyesore. But nobody ever mentions your lives before the war.” Erik took the flask from Bucky, both their eyes still looking out towards the horizon.

Bucky doesn’t reply for a long while and Erik doesn’t speak up again. They watch the sunset in companionable silence, both lost in their own memories as they pass the flask back and forth. Eventually the colors begin to wane and give way to the indigos and navy’s of late twilight, Wakanda’s stars out in bright force. The moon isn’t full tonight, making it even easier to see out into space.

“I didn’t think it was possible for there to be this many stars before I came here.” Bucky says, draining the last of the flask. “We barely saw any in New York and even out in the middle of nowhere Europe there were still clouds to block the sky more often than not. One of the things they told us way back when I was in basic training was that no matter where you go, it’s the same sky. Supposed to help with homesickness or something. Realized pretty early on that it didn’t matter that it was the same sky if the people you miss aren’t looking. I went ‘round two years without Steve once I enlisted. That was two years I spent worrying about him and terrified what might happen without me there to protect him. Then all of a sudden we start seeing Captain America and I hear a rumor that he’s the product of some science experiment but we think nothing of it besides a laugh at the outfit.”

He tries to take another drink but doesn’t get more than a few drops from what’s left in the flask. “Then everything went to shit and I wake up on a table in a lab and Captain America is unstrapping me and calling me Buck and I’m groggy from whatever the fuck HYDRA put in my blood and then all I can see is Steve. He’s there and he’s Captain America and nothing makes sense. Couldn’t tell you exactly how we got out of there but we did. The army had left us for dead and he came back for us. Little Steve Rogers, the weak kid from Brooklyn whose bed I sat by every night he had pneumonia. Who I fed soup to when he had the flu. Who I gave the blankets to in the winter because we couldn’t afford heating. He was the one saving me.”

He let out a long sigh and leaned back against the wall of the hut, the mud cool from the evening chill. “Guess it was Steve Rogers that needed me. Not Captain America. No wonder he hasn’t come back for me.”

They were silent for another stretch, the color fading completely from the sky, leaving it nothing but deep black with the pinpricks of light from the endless stars and the slight hazy band of the Milky Way.

“Would you go if he came back? He strolls out of the jungle, the picture of America, asks for you to follow him on his ‘righteous mission to save the world’. Would you go?” Erik asks, not turning to look at Bucky.

“Not sure. ‘m tired of fighting, but if he said he needed me, needed my help, I’d go without a second thought. Not sure what kind of situation that might be but if he asked I would go, no matter what. That’s the thing ‘bout Steve. He doesn’t like putting others in danger if he can avoid it. He wouldn’t ask unless there was no other choice.”

“There’s your answer man. He ain’t come because he wants you to have the chance to be away from the fightin’. You been at it longer than him cuz of all the HYDRA shit. He was on ice for like 70 sumthin years. He probs misses you as much as you miss him but he’s doing the fightin’ so you don’t have to. This is your chance to do what you want without someone else taking the lead. He’ll be back when he can or needs to be. If I were you, I’d hope he don’t come back for a while. The moment he does is the moment the world’s gone to shit out past our borders.” Erik puts a hand on Bucky’s shoulder as he stands, a friendly gesture that Bucky doesn’t instinctually flinch away from. It’d taken him a long time to get to this point of trust and he was proud of himself for it.

“I’ll see what I can find for you, and talk to T’Challa about doing the same. Maybe one of the War Dogs knows something about your missing eyesore? But don’t sweat it too much man, he’ll come back. The hero types always do.” Erik teased and Bucky rolled his eyes as he stood, brushing the dirt off his pants and handing Erik the flask back.

“Thank you N’Jadaka.” He says and Erik chuckles.

“Must’ve helped you more than I thought, you only call me that when you’re super grateful for something.” He comments as he starts walking away. “Night man.” He calls with a wave.

Bucky waves back and with one last look up at the sky, heads into his hut to settle in for the night.


	41. Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, life got busy so I didn't have much time to write. Did get this little drabble finished and a couple longer chapters in the work.

When one of the women of the Dora Milaje gets engaged, Bucky expects to be tacked on as a plus one to Shuri or Ramonda if Shuri invites Peter, that is if he attends at all. He doesn’t expect to receive an invitation in his own right. It comes to his hut, hand delivered by the Dora herself, she is one of the ones Bucky spars with more frequently, they have a friendly comradery between them but Bucky didn’t know he was considered a friend enough to be invited to a wedding.

Nonetheless he thanks her and says he will gladly attend, it’s not like he has much else to do anyway. He frets about it for a few weeks, unsure what to expect from a wedding in Wakanda. He’d only attended one in his life and that had been way back when he was a teenager. He couldn’t even remember who had gotten married, only that he had spent the entire time bored out of his mind.

Eventually Shuri tells him what to wear and gives him a little lowdown on what kind of goes on. She says it varies widely depending on who is getting married, that this will be a bit more formal and ceremonial because the bride is a Dora. He doesn’t claim to understand everything about the process and the standards but he’s not really an expert on American weddings so who is he to judge?

The day comes and in all of the weeks leading up to the event there is one thing that never comes up or is never mentioned to Bucky. Something he doesn’t even think to question or consider until he sees two women standing across from each other on the altar. He glances around and it is clear that he is the only one that finds this remotely abnormal so he holds his tongue and questions for the rest of the festivities.

Later when he is sitting on a ship with Shuri, headed back to his village he says “So two women. That legal here I’m guessing?”

She looks at him incredulously, as though he had just asked her what Vibranium was, but then her confusion fades to soft realization and she nods “It has never not been. Not even from the beginning of Wakanda.”

“So just a Wakanda thing?” He says, trying to clarify. His gaze is firmly out the window, giving Shuri no hints as to what he may be thinking about.

“No, some other countries have made it legal as well. Not many in the grand scheme of the world, but some.”

“America?”

“Somewhat recently yes.” She confirms and he falls silent.

After a long pause with nothing but the hum of the ship to fill the silence, Shuri speaks up “I understand you were born and raised in a very different time and spent much of your life working under very horrible people so I appreciate you taking it in stride today. I am sure they did as well.”

“World’s changed and Wakanda is always like a hundred steps ahead of everyone anyway. I shouldn’t have been surprised.” He doesn’t want to talk about the nights he spent laying awake as a kid and teenager wondering what was wrong with him. Or the times he was nearly caught staring at Steve when they were with the Commandos, ‘specially in the showers. He definitely doesn’t want to talk about that one night in their late-teens that they had gotten ahold of a bottle of whisky and gotten so drunk they could barely stumble their way into bed, let alone think about the implications of a kiss or two or more.

Luckily Shuri was incredibly perceptive about Bucky and kept her mouth shut when he didn’t say anything more. Normally she would pry, it was her way of helping his memories reform and for him to heal. But this was a different case and she knew it. She landed the ship expertly, the dust barely stirring.

“Goodnight Bucky.” She said, giving him a loose hug.

“Night” He returned, though even he knew he sounded too pensive. For once he ignored his need to comfort Shuri and assure her he was fine. This was a far more private matter than anything that had ever come up between them.

And if he fell asleep to the phantom feeling of someone cuddled against his side and lips on his neck, well that was certainly none of her business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to note that relationships of any kind for anyone probably won't go past a mention/reference. I'm not good at writing them and I don't really enjoy writing them. So sorry to disappoint any Stucky fans but it probably won't go further than them MAYBE talking about things that happened way in the past.


	42. Century

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, I have been working on this chapter for what feels like forever and it is finally done. Its a long one and one that just made me smile thinking about and writing. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

For a span of almost a week Bucky swears he hears the notes and sounds of a brass band coming from Shuri’s lab but when he comes in but the sounds disappear quickly after he enters, long before he gets down to the actual lab area.

He doesn’t really think much of it; Shuri could just be trying to listen to his music again, despite her insistence that it isn’t quite fast enough for her work tastes. But that wouldn’t explain why she seems to shut it off when he shows up or that he hears some of the slow tempo songs that she wouldn’t listen to in the first place.

He asks what she’s up to and she blows him off claiming there is nothing happening and he must be hearing things. He gives her a suspicious look but lets it slide, several times.

~

As he is walking through the palace one day he is 100% certain he hears the unmistakable smooth jazzy brass of Benny Goodman’s music as he passes T’Challa’s closed door. Bucky pauses and presses his ear to the door in interest.

 _“Ugh for Bast’s sake T’Challa we have gone over this. The right foot is first and then left and both are After the spin.”_ Shuri is saying. _“Nakia isn’t having trouble and I only showed her the steps this morning. Are you the Black Panther or not?”_

 _“And in what description of the Black Panther is he supposed to be good at dancing? If you know something about my job that I do not, please enlighten me.”_ T’Challa shoots back; earning a huff that sounds like Shuri and a chuckle that is likely Nakia. Bucky is confused by the whole exchange, despite that he is starting to put together what might be going on. Nonetheless he walks away, deciding to let Shuri explain when she’s ready.

~

A few days later he’s in the lab and Shuri says “So dancing halls, those were like a big thing back in your day right?”

“Yeah?” He replies questioningly. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious. It sounds like something that I have never experienced and that time in New York hardly counts.”

She is typing on a holoscreen and while his spoken Xhosa is flawless, his reading isn’t at the same level. “Are you taking notes?” He asks suspiciously.

“On your arm _idiot._ Tell me about the halls.”

He narrows his eyes but then relaxes back into his chair. “Well it was the best place to take a girl for a night out, I can tell you that much. Ain’t no one who didn’t have a good time dancing back then.” And then just like that he’s lost in his memories.

_“C’mon Bucky! Benny Goodman's ‘bout to start!” A shorthaired woman was saying, dragging him to the dance floor. Margaret, his brain supplied._

_“I’m coming sweetheart, I’m coming!” Bucky replied with a winning smile, moving in front to lead her, both of them falling into step with the rest of the crowd as the band really started going._

_One song after another, neither of them missing a beat. Becca had engrained each and every step to all the popular dances in his mind after her first time at a dance hall. They’d spent weeks learning together, music pouring from the radio their ma had gotten second hand after months of saving. It wasn’t a good one and the sound cut out frequently but it was the greatest gift they’d ever received._

“Steve hated ‘em. Couldn’t ever learn the steps so even if he did get a dame to ask him to dance, he couldn’t do it.” He was saying, chuckling to himself.

Shuri was giving him a soft smile but her hands were still flying across the keyboard as she took notes on something. “Your old accent comes back when you talk about back then.” She commented with a wider smile.

“Don’t diss the accent sweetheart.” He said with a smirk, pouring on the Brooklyn drawl.

“Colonizer.” She says, sticking her tongue out at him.

~

 He finds Erik in a hallway of the palace, headphones in his ears and music player in his hand as he looks at his feet. He’s working his way through some complex steps that look familiar enough that it feels like its on the tip of Bucky’s tongue but he can’t figure out what they are for the life of him. When Bucky approaches Erik stops and takes out one headphone.

“What are you doing?” Bucky asks.

“Project for Princess” The other man replies but the expression on his face is enough to tell Bucky that he’s up to something and that the simple explanation is all he is going to get.

~

A week passes and Bucky is at home in his village when Shuri messages him on his beads. “Formal dinner tonight, Mama expects you to be there.” He messages back asking what he should wear as it’s not like he’s got an old army uniform or even anything that could be considered formal enough for a formal dinner with the royal family of Wakanda. She says she’ll bring him something and true to her word she does, showing up an hour later with a large box and a mischievous, knowing look on her face. She leaves before he can open it and ask how to put on whatever counts for Wakandan formalwear, so he decides to try and figure it out himself.

He did not expect to be greeted by the familiar dark olive green of a US army uniform, something he hasn’t seen anywhere but museums since World War Two. His hands shake as he pulls out the neatly folded shirt and jacket and crisply pressed pants. It even feels exactly like he remembers. What time travel had Shuri pulled off to get this in such perfect shape? Under the pants is a smaller box with a tie and belt and all Bucky can think is ‘How?’

He sets everything aside to keep it from getting dusty or dirty and calls Shuri. She answers with a smile already on her face. “How did you find this?” he asks in awe.

She winks and says, “Dinner is at sunset. Don’t be late Sergeant.” And then hangs up before he can get another word in.

Bucky takes the day to clean himself up in a way he hasn’t been since 1942. He may no longer be part of the military or really have any desire to be but he still can’t bring himself to disrespect the uniform. He shaves and asks one of the villagers to help him trim his hair short. As the sun starts to set he gets dressed and is once again astonished to find that everything fits him perfectly, as if this was his old uniform itself. Even the proper pins and badges and patches for his rank and division are in place on the jacket. “You’ve really out done yourself this time kid.” He mutters as he climbs onto his small ship to head to the palace.

Shuri is there to greet him when he strides off the ramp; his posture better than it has been in months, something about the uniform just makes him stand up a little straighter. She’s in her own formalwear, a brightly patterned dress with an intricately beaded neckline, her braids piled on her head in an imitation of a crown. Under her arm is the last piece to his uniform, the hat. She hands it over with a smile while teasing, “Who are you and what have you done with Bucky?”

“That’s Sergeant Barnes to you, your highness.” He says, jokingly bowing. Shuri laughs but places the hat on his head.

“I can see why American women say they love a man in uniform.” She loops her arm through his and starts to lead the way inside.

“So what’s the occasion anyway? And how the hell did you find this thing?”

“I made it, found the designs online and did it myself. I tried to make it authentic as possible.”

“Well you did a damn good job, it’s perfect.” He doesn’t miss the way she evaded his first question.

They run into T’Challa and Nakia in the hallway, both looking every part the King and future Queen.

“You have any idea what the big deal is?” He asks Nakia, who simply shrugs with a knowing look on her face. He’s getting the feeling that he is the only one not in the know.

As they come to the door to the ‘fancy dining room’ as Shuri called it, Bucky stopped in his tracks. The sounds of drums followed by trumpets and saxophones and trombones fill the air in a tune he’d been hearing randomly for weeks now. Shuri pushes open the door and looks at Bucky expectantly. As he steps into the room his mouth falls open in surprise.

It was like stepping back in time, the dining room made to look identical to the dance hall in Brooklyn that he’d frequented, down to the placement of the stage and the color of the dance floor. On the stage was a band playing the music that filled the room and while he knew they weren’t real due to the fact that Glenn Miller was the one conducting them, the effect was the same.

Shuri stepped up next to him and tapped a button on her Kimoyo beads and suddenly the room filled with people dancing in time with the music, all of them dressed to the nine’s and spinning with such ease and grace it was easy to mistake the holograms for real people.

“Happy Birthday Bucky.” Shuri said from beside him and Bucky looked at her in surprise. “Did you really think I was going to pass up on the chance to celebrate your 100th birthday?” She asked.

“You made all this, for me?”

“Of course. Do you think I did it for T’Challa?” She teased and Bucky chuckled. He was at a loss for words; there was no way that he could think to properly express how he was feeling or his gratitude.

As if sensing his feelings, Erik put his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “So you gonna show us how you old folks partied back in the day or was all the time Princess spent teaching us the dances for nothin?”

Bucky looked back at him and said, “You think you can keep up?”

“Can Princess?” Erik teased back and Bucky looked to her, silently asking the same thing.

“I can try but if you really want to show off” She tapped her beads to his “I spent two weeks programming the holograms, they should be able to do anything you can think of.” She assured him and gestured to the full dance floor.

Bucky undid the buttons on his jacket and shrugged it off, handing it to Erik. “Watch and learn.” He said with an easy confidence he couldn’t remember having since before the war. He took the hand of a woman as she spun by and just like that they were back in 1940.

It was the most fun Bucky had had in years. True to Shuri’s skills, the holograms could keep up with him but he didn’t want to discredit her dancing skills so he spent more time dancing with her, Nakia and Ramonda once she joined them. They all switched from partner to partner until they got tired and their feet began to ache. The band started to play a slow song and Bucky found his way back to Shuri, taking her hand to sway simply with her in the center of the dance floor.

“Thank you for doing this. I don’t think there are words to describe how much it means to me.”

“I had fun setting it up. I have not had to do this much research for something in a long time. It was a fun challenge.”

“Well I’m glad my past made a good challenge for your genius. You know I’ve had my suspicions about what you were up to for weeks but I never would have guessed something like this.”

“Oh I managed to keep the former assassin spy in the dark? That is a skill I will be sure to practice.” She teased.

“Don’t get too cocky now kid, stick to what you’re good at.” He laughed.

“Apparently, I am good at sneaking things past you.” She said confidently. The song waned to an end and she stepped away, her stomach letting out a growl. “The night is not over yet, there is still a cake with a hundred candles waiting for you to blow out.” She said, taking his arm and leading them off the floor.

“Feels like they’re going to go to waste seeing as I don’t think I have any thing left to wish for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a video to give you an idea of the type of environment of dance halls back in the day. 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOPSETBUgvQ 
> 
> Songs to look up include Benny Goodman's Sing Sing Sing and Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade


	43. Brooklyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for disappearing (again), I had major writers block and it wasn't until today that I had a spark. It's a bit different but I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> (Side note: I am not from New York and have been only once. Sorry if anything doesn't match actual New York.)

When Shuri goes to visit Peter in New York, Bucky decides to come along. He drops Shuri off at the subway station where Peter is waiting to lead the way back to his apartment building but instead hops on the G train for himself and rides it all the way to Carroll Street.

His gut twists the moment he exits the train station. Brooklyn looks different than he remembers but yet somehow the same. The bridge is still there and the brick apartments and all that. But somehow it’s brighter than he remembers. Granted it was the end of the Depression last time he’d been here and technology had advanced an impossible amount since the 40s so it’d make sense. There were gleaming skyscrapers on the skyline, towering over some of the buildings he had considered tall back in the day.

Yet even with all the change, his feet manage to take him down familiar roads and alleys. He passes a deli he and Steve once frequented, with the same sign out front proclaiming it to be family owned since 1923, he’s surprised it’s still open. Curiously he steps inside and looks around; it’s been updated obviously, new fixtures and tables and electric lights, but yet somehow it’s as dingy as he remembers.

“What can I get for you man?” A young man asks from behind the counter.

“Pastrami on rye. Extra mustard.” He says, adding the alteration after a moments pause. Now he knew that wasn’t something he picked up in Wakanda.

“You got it.” The man says, getting to work.

Bucky sits down at one of the tables, at what he thinks is random but as he sits down, out of the corner of his eyes he notices four letters carved into the wood of the molding on the floor. Its cracked and ancient looking, like it hasn’t been replaced since the place opened, but he can clearly make out ‘BB’ and ‘SR’ etched into it in small block letters.

“Food’s ready.” The man calls, bringing Bucky out of his thoughts. He pays and takes the sandwich to go, the bread warm in his hands despite the paper around it. He keeps walking, letting muscle memory and sense memory lead him through the streets of Brooklyn.

A few more blocks and he comes to a small park, just a handful of trees and flower beds and a bench or two but it has a view of the water so he sits down on the first bench he finds and unwraps his sandwich. The first bite catches him off guard. It’s mostly sour and a little bit sweet but meaty and hearty. The mustard is spicy, spicier than he’s been eating and it’s a different sort of spicy. Wakandan spice is more of a hot kick and this is more of a burn in the back of his throat. He can’t remember was kind of meat pastrami is actually made of but he assumes beef, though it tastes nothing like the beef in Wakandan dishes. It’s generally just a weird tasting sandwich but yet something about it is comforting and familiar.

A few people jog by as he sits there enjoying his food and none of them give him a second glance. He’d brought along the facial hologram as a precaution but had decided against using it when he stepped onto the train. This far from Manhattan and anything that could be connected to him he feels like it’s not as risky. He still has on a baseball hat and a jacket to both hide his identity and protect him against the slight chill in the spring air.

He finishes his sandwich and throws the wrapper away before starting to wander again. Everything about this route seems like a faint memory, hidden under layers and layers of other ones. Nothing about them is fully clear, but yet he keeps walking along some unknown route that winds around corners and through back alleys and a maze of brick buildings. He passes shops selling everything from flowers to touristy knickknacks and restaurants and delis and convenience stores. This is the type of city he recalled, this is the city he grew up in. For all the wonder and marvel that Wakanda was, it did not have this.

Finally he stops. Across the street is a brick apartment building no different from any of the others he’d passed. It’s six stories tall with a frame of fire escapes climbing up the front and is perfectly identical to the ones on either side. His eyes trace up the fire escape to the top floor and the two windows right in the center, the platform of the fire escape just outside them.

_“Dinner’s ready Buck!” He’s sitting on the fire escape, feet dangling over the edge as he looks out across the city below him. It’s getting dark now, the sunset well into it’s final stages as the streetlights start to flicker on. He’s got a cigarette dangling between his lips, burned almost to the end._

_“C’mon Buck it ain’t getting any warmer!”_

_“Coming!” he calls back, though he doesn’t look away. The letter feels heavy in his back pocket, already wrinkled and creased from how many times he’d unfolded and refolded it. He’d planned to enlist anyway, so why did the draft notice weigh so much on his mind? Was it because it wasn’t his choice anymore? That he didn’t have any input to when or where he went? That must be it._

_He flicked the butt of the cigarette over the fire escape and watched the glowing ember on the end tumble to the street below. No matter how low or how poor he’d been, they’d been, there had always been a choice. He could choose how to spend his meager earnings, when to buy food or when to save for special occasions, when to work another shift at the docks or to stay home and take care of Steve, when to quit a job that wasn’t treating him fair or when to suck it up and earn the money._

_“Bucky?” Steve asks, poking his head out the open window. “You feeling okay?”_

_Bucky looks back, his lips curling to a small smile. “I’m good, just stuck in my head. Sorry.” He says, standing up._

_Steve chuckles “You’re always stuck in there, ain’t sure they’re going to let some daydreamer join the Army.” He’s teasing but he doesn’t know how it makes Bucky’s heart and stomach twist and clench in anxiousness._

_“Maybe not, but least I can climb a flight of stairs without losing my breath. I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter how many times you try, they’re gonna see right through you.” He teases back, his smile hopefully hiding any trace of nervousness from his face._

_“That’s playing dirty.” Steve laughs as he ducks back into the building, Bucky following behind him._

_“When have you ever known me to play fair?”_

“Young man are you alright?” An elderly woman asks, bringing Bucky out of his daydreaming.

“Apologies ma’am, I just, I used to live in that building. Been a while since I was back in Brooklyn. Just lost in nostalgia.” She smiles with a fond knowingness.

“I know the feeling, I’ve lived in this neighborhood my entire life. I’ve watched it grow and change with the times, but the buildings always stay the same.” He guesses she’s at least 80 and holds back a chuckle thinking about how she was probably a kid when he left Brooklyn for the last time.

“That’s good to hear, be a shame if it was torn down.” He says.

She laughs, “If it’s survived this long, it’ll be a hell of a project to tear it down.” He wants to talk more, ask her about how the neighborhood had changed while he’d been gone, but his phone rings and his Kimoyo beads vibrate. Shuri trying to call him then.

“It was nice talking to you ma’am.” He says, smiling at her and taking her hand in his, kissing the back of it. She laughs and says he’s a flatterer but tells him to take care.

 _“I didn’t expect you to be in Brooklyn.”_ Shuri says in his ear, the Xhosa almost shocking after hearing English all day.

 _“Wanted to look around a bit, can’t fault a guy for feeling kind of homesick.”_ She laughs on the other end.

_“I’ll meet you both back where I left you. Tell Parker we’re all getting Pastrami for dinner, you’re going to love it.”_


	44. Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hit 20k! Thank you so much to every single person who has read this story so far but a special thanks to all the commenters who I can count on to say a kind word or two after every chapter. You guys make my day wonderful!
> 
> Enjoy this new chapter, its a bit of angst, bit of fluff, with some mentions to Winter Soldier thrown in because I just rewatched it again the other day.

Sleeping is next to impossible the first month he spends after being cured.

His memories were starting to return, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, that meant the good and the bad. For every day spent at Coney Island with Steve in the 1930s, he got the sounds of gunfire and sprays of blood that he caused. He remembered dancing with beautiful girls and choking the life out of a diplomat’s wife. He remembered laughing with the Howling Commandos and putting a bullet wound in Captain America’s stomach.

It was after waking up to the memory of a woman’s pleading cries for her life that he realized a sad and worrying fact. The bad outweighed the good. He had 20 something years of good memories and 70ish years of bad. The largest part of his life had been spent as a weapon, a thing to be pointed towards a target and fired.

The worst memories though were the most recent ones, his last mission for HYDRA that they had never gotten the chance to wipe from his mind. He remembered fighting Steve, trying to kill Steve. He could feel each and every swipe of his knife and the slight resistance it gave slicing through Steve’s uniform and skin. He saw his bullets enter Steve’s leg, shoulder and stomach. Steve’s expression haunted him. The guilt and pleading in his eyes despite the airship crumbling around them. His mind had screamed at him to stop despite not knowing who Steve was, he knew he was important but the mission directive had been stronger. The headache he’d had for the next week after dragging Steve onto the riverbank had been one of the worst pains he’d ever had.

“I don’t deserve this.” He told Shuri the day after the memories of Howard and Maria Stark had come back. She was fiddling with the stump of his metal shoulder, poking and prodding at the wires to see what did what.

“What do you mean?” She asked, looking up at him.

“I don’t deserve anyone’s help. I should turn myself in and let them decide.”

“You were brainwashed idiot. It is not your”

“It is my fault!” He said sharply, making Shuri flinch away from the outburst. “I killed those people. I hunted them and murdered them and assassinated politicians and brought down governments. It doesn’t matter who told me to do it. It was still me.”

“My memories are coming back and all I can see and hear is people begging me to spare them. They had families and children and spouses but I killed them anyway. Most of my life has been spent as a murderer. Even when I wasn’t HYDRA’s fucking puppet I still murdered people, just in the name of the US instead.”

Shuri had sat back in her chair, letting him finish his outburst. She looked him up and down and said, “You have not been sleeping.”

“Course not, how could I when all I see when I close my eyes are goddamn corpses.” His flesh hand was clenched into a fist and his eyes were shut tight in frustration. “I should just leave Wakanda and let whoever finds me find me.” He said, trying to stand up.

Shuri however would not let him. She put her hand against his chest and looked him pointedly in the eyes. “How did you get here?”

Bucky looked confused but said “You know already, your brother saved me and Steve after our fight with Stark.”

“But how did you get to this point in your life? How did you stop being HYDRA’s assassin and end up here?” Her tone implied that she was clearly trying to make a point so Bucky indulged her.

“Steve. He’s the one that made me start to question HYDRA.”

“And when he read the file on what you have done, did he turn you in to the government?”

“No.” Bucky said with a sigh. “He tried to convince the rest that it wasn’t my fault.”

“And after all of that you are so quick to try and turn yourself in? I would have thought you would want to do more to thank him for that?”

She stood and walked over to her worktable, setting down the tool she had been using and picking up another.

“T’Challa offered for us to help heal you as an apology for how he handled the United Nations incident. We continue to help you because you have proven that you are willing and wanting to change. You deserve the chance to be yourself once again.”

“Now stop whining and let me poke at your shoulder some more. If you want a new arm I have to know how the old one worked. And you are taking a sleeping pill tonight even if I have to force it down your throat, I doubt the bags under your eyes are designer.”

He realizes a few days later that he is not the only one to have nightmares.

He is startled awake by muffled whimpering coming from the cot across the room. He and Shuri had ended up sleeping in the lab after it got too late for it to be worth going back to the palace. She had cots for that very purpose brought in very early on after they both passed out in their chairs after a long night.

The princess is curled in a loose ball under a patterned blanket, her body shaking slightly with silent sobs. For a moment Bucky hesitates, it had been a long time since he’d tried to comfort his sister or anyone for that matter from a bad dream. She’s muttering in the native language, the sound familiar enough to him now but none of the words. He does pick up on her brother’s name and can’t decide if she is dreaming of him or trying to call out for him.

“Shuri” he called quietly. “Wake up, you’re having a nightmare.”

Her eyes clenched tighter and she whimpered again. Gently he put a hand on her shoulder and said “Shuri, wake up.” Shaking her lightly.

She sat up with a start, her eyes wide. She was breathing heavily and looked at Bucky in confusion.

“You were having a nightmare.” He explained as soothingly as he could. She blinked in realization and a tear started rolling down from each of her eyes. “Hey hey it’s okay, I’ve been having them practically every night since I woke up.” He said quickly, trying to calm her down, his hand still on her shoulder.

She looked away from him and then tapped one of her Kimoyo beads. After a moment T’Challa’s face appeared, he looked at Shuri and said something in Xhosa in a kind tone.

“I am sorry.” She said to Bucky, seeming ashamed.

He wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for, waking him? Or maybe for calling T’Challa? “Don’t worry about it, you know how bad they’ve been for me. I’m not about to judge you for having them. Do you want to talk about it?” He tried to offer.

“You would not understand.” She said, barely above a whisper.

The door to the lab open and T’Challa nearly ran down the ramp, he was in what Bucky assumed were his pajamas. At the sight of him Shuri started to cry again, more tears welling up as T’Challa embraced her. Bucky looked away before walking back to his cot as quietly as he could, not wanting to intrude on the siblings.

T’Challa ended up staying the rest of the night, getting another cot delivered and pushing it up against Shuri’s. If it were anyone else or any other situation, Bucky might had thought it a bit odd but from what Bucky had seen of him, T’Challa was the perfect older brother. The two of them had likely done this sort of thing their entire lives whenever either of them had a bad dream.

_“I-I had a bad dream.” Becca was sobbing, holding her threadbare blanket tightly to her chest._

_“‘Bout what Becs?” He asked, sitting down on the bed next to her and throwing an arm around her shoulder to pull her close._

_She cuddled into his side and said “‘‘Bout you. You and Steve had to go to fight in the war and you, you didn’t come home. I don’t want you to go, you can’t go, you hafta stay here and help ma.” She turned her face to push against his shoulder, crying into it._

_“Hey now, ‘s alright. We’re gonna be alright.” He wrapped his other arm around her to hug her tightly. “You know me ‘n Steve both had to sign up but let me tell you something.” She looked up at him, the rest of her face still buried in his shoulder. “Steve’s not gonna go no matter how much he wants to help, he’s too smart. They need muscle heads like me, they don’t want smart alecks like him. So he’s gonna stay here and help ma and keep you guys safe until I get back.”_

_“But what if you don’t?” She asked, her voice wavering, on the verge of tears again._

_“I will come back. I promise you Becca, I’m gonna come home and I’m going to fight off all the guys who try ‘n go steady with you while I was gone and when you find a guy who you love I’m gonna walk you down the aisle when you get married and I’m gonna cry cause I’m so happy for you. And I’m going to bring you and your sisters back the prettiest dresses I can find in Europe, one from each country I go to and then we’re all gonna go dancing”_

_“Even Steve?” She laughed, wiping her eyes with her wrist._

_“Especially Steve. Whether he likes it or not. He’ll owe to me. Now scoot over, I’m staying in here tonight.”_

_“I’m too old to need you to sleep in here Bucky.” She whined, trying to push him off the bed._

_“Fifteen ain’t old enough to not need me to scare away your bad dreams, now scoot over kid.”_

“Thank you for trying to help Shuri last night.” T’Challa said to him the next morning.

“Wish I could’ve done more to help.” Bucky said.

“If she has another, please let me know.” T’Challa asked, tapping his Kimoyo beads to Bucky’s.

“I know it’s not really my place to ask but what was it about?”

T’Challa looked thoughtful for a moment, as if considering if he should tell him or not. Eventually he said, “What do you know about the incident with N’Jadaka?”

“She told me he tried to take over and that you, uh didn’t win the first round.”

T’Challa scoffed “Fair phrasing I suppose. What did she tell you about the ‘second’ round?”

“Some, not many details but the general idea.”

T’Challa was quiet again and wandered over to look out the window, his arms crossed loosely over his chest. “He nearly killed her. He would have had I not tackled him over the edge of the mine.”

“And she's willing to be in the same room as him?” Bucky asked in surprise.

“My sister is surprisingly forgiving when someone proves they are willing to change and take responsibility for their mistakes.”

“That’s why she doesn’t blame me for what I did.” Bucky said with a sigh of realization, walking over to join T’Challa by the window.

“If she can forgive N’Jadaka for knowingly trying to kill Wakandans for his own gain, it would be hypocritical for her to blame you for what you were forced to do against your will.” T’Challa said wryly, looking at Bucky out of the corner of his eye.

Bucky closed his eyes and gave a small chuckle “You damn Wakandan’s are too clever for your own good.”

T’Challa smirked and shrugged “She is the smart one, I am just the King.”

“And that is just the problem, your highness, even you are too smart for the rest of us. But I see your point. Thank you.”

“You have no need to thank me Sergeant Barnes, I had committed a great wrong against you by jumping so quickly to conclusions myself. I have a thing or two to learn about forgiveness from my sister. Now let us return to the Palace, I sent Shuri ahead and she will be worried if we are not there in time for breakfast.”


	45. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look the real chapter 45. This is the point where this story fully diverges from MCU canon. After seeing Infinity war I did not want to have to worry about that shitshow in my fic. So if you want an ending that does fall within the canon, check out the second installment in this series entitled The End of the World. Otherwise enjoy this!
> 
> This is not the last chapter. I have some more stuff I want to do with this fic. However it may be a bit before I get it written. I have a super busy month ahead of me with May so my writing time will be slim. Hope you all will stick around with me though!

“Hey Princess, you send a new type of ship to come pick me up?” Erik asks over his com.

“What are you talking about?” Shuri replies in confusion.

“There’s a ship, ain’t sure if it’s one of ours or not.” He continues while Shuri pulls up the feed from his suit.

“I have never seen a ship like that.” She says and Erik’s posture changes immediately.

Bucky looks up from his book and his eyes widen slightly in realization. “I have.”

“Hostile?” Erik asks.

“Not sure, shouldn’t be. Do you want me to come out there?”

“Depends on who it is.” Erik says, waiting for Bucky to explain further.

“The Avengers.” T’Challa’s voice speaks up from the coms. Bucky figures he must have checked in after Erik contacted them. “Perhaps only the rogue members but that ship belongs to them.”

“Want me to engage?”

“No need, they will be more respectful than our other American visitors.” T’Challa says simply.

Shuri taps a button and the coms go silent before she turns to Bucky “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” He says immediately but the look she gives him makes him feel like he’s not so sure he is. They watch through Erik’s eyes as the ramp descends and Natalia, no Natasha he has to remind himself, steps out.

“Don’t think you have an invite this time either.” Erik comments, some reference to the last time the Black Widow had come to Wakanda.

She looked at him seriously “We need your help. There is nowhere else for us to go.”

“Who’s we?” Erik asks.

She disappears for a moment back into the ship and Bucky’s eyes widen when she returns supporting half the weight of Captain America on her shoulder. On his other side is Falcon, Sam if he remembers his name correctly. There is a large bandage wrapped around the entirety of Steve’s torso, a large dark stain in the center of it. He looks pale and ragged, his uniform torn in several places and like he is struggling to keep his eyes open. He has a beard and his hair is longer than the last time Bucky saw him. He looks like he’s aged a decade in the last two years.

“Steve.” Bucky breathes in worry.

“A ship is on its way but it will take time, if the wound is still bleeding, take a Kimoyo bead and put it in. That will stabilize him long enough.” Shuri instructs Erik calmly, fingers tapping furiously on different screens as she prepares her lab for a medical emergency.

Bucky can’t take his eyes off of Steve as Erik moves in and helps them lean Steve against the side of the ship. He hasn’t seen him in this bad of a shape, well since he could remember. Even when they’d fought Iron-Man, Bucky had been knocked out early on in that fight and hadn’t woken up until they were on T’Challa’s ship.

“His pulse is slow but constant, but his blood pressure is too low. He should not even be conscious.” Shuri is saying after using Erik’s Kimoyo beads to scan Steve. Her voice is laced with confusion.

“The serum.” Bucky mutters. “It makes it, difficult to pass out from anything besides pain.” His voice is quiet and Shuri’s fingers pause for a second, knowing Bucky speaks from experience.

“The medical team will be there shortly.” Shuri says quietly into the com. She taps a button and the conversation falls silent, muted to their ears. “He will be fine Bucky. If the serum in his blood is the same as the one in yours and combined with our technology, he will shrug this off by tomorrow at the latest.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.” He says as the medical ship descends and Steve is loaded onto a gurney.

“Come, we can meet them at the medical center.” She says, the screens powering down as she starts to rush to her ship.

Bucky looks at the spot where the screens were and then down at his metal hand. “I’ve spent enough of a lifetime seeing him in pain and sick. I think, I think I’m just going to go home.”

He hears her try to speak up and convince him otherwise, hears her telling him not to go, her words ringing in his ears but he just walked past her without looking back. The ship carrying Steve takes the place of Bucky’s on the landing pad moments after his own has cleared it. He watches from above as Shuri’s lab techs rush out to meet the medical team, Steve lying prone on a hover-gurney as he is moved off the ship. Bucky flies away before they even get him inside.

Hours later it is Erik who comes to find him, sauntering across Bucky’s village to sit beside him in the soft dirt near the riverbank.

“Ya know if I didn’t know any better I’d say you don’t want to see him.” He says by way of greeting, settling down next to Bucky.

“Is he?” Bucky asks, glancing at Erik out of the corner of his eye. He’s got one of his knees pulled up and is resting his hands around on his upper shin.

“He’s fine. Princess had a hell of time figuring out what was wrong, pulled up all the data on you that she had to try and get some answers. It was a stab wound, straight in the gut.”

“The serum should have taken care of that.” Bucky says quickly.

“Problem is, it didn’t. He was still bleedin’. She’s waiting on blood work but best guess is that whoever stabbed him coated the weapon with some kinda toxin, messed with the healing factor. She’s got him stable now, won’t get any worse but ain’t gonna get better till she figures out whats up.”

Bucky didn’t say a word but felt his heartbeat pick up. This was giving him all too many flashbacks to the years he spent at Steve’s bedside, trying to keep him stable through the flu and pneumonia and everything in between. The feeling of helplessness with nothing to do but wait and pray that he’d get better. Missing work out of fear of what might happen if he left Steve alone.

“He asked about you. Kept mumbling your name and trying to ask if you were all right. Shuri got him lucid for a few minutes when he got hooked up to life support and first thing he did was ask where you were.”

Bucky felt his stomach drop in guilt as Erik turned to look at him “So why were you out here ‘stead of in there with him?”

It took him a long time to figure out what words he wanted to use, how to form a way to try and let Erik understand. “I met Steve when I was eight years old. We were thick as thieves all through growing up and up ‘till I got drafted. Got captured by HYDRA two years into the war and pumped full of all sorts of drugs and shit. Captain America saved me and the other guys but I think the Bucky Barnes that Steve Rogers knew died in that lab.” He finally admitted.

“I wasn’t the same after that and don’t think I’ll be him again after everything that’s happened. And I don’t know if I‘m ready to face the guy who is expecting me to be the friend he grew up with. I have all the memories back, everything that we ever did as dumb kids is all right here.” He gestured to his head with his metal hand but then slowly brought it down to look at it. “But I feel like an outsider watching someone else’s life. I’m not sure he’ll understand.”

Erik looked out across the river thoughtfully after that. Eventually he gives a little self-depreciating chuckle and shakes his head. “You found somethin’ I can’t help you with man. This is between you old folks.”

Bucky chokes out his own pitying laugh and mutters something about respecting the elderly but Erik continues “But that don’t mean you can’t work it out. All I got is that you two are the only ones on the planet who know what it feels like to go through what the other went through.” Erik stood up and wiped dirt off his pants. “You’re lucky it ain’t the end of the world that brought him back. So get’cha head outta your ass and go talk to him. You’re the only thing Captain Patriot asked for while he was bleeding out so get’cha act together and go.”

Bucky watches him go before going into his hut to tidy up. He sweeps and shakes out his floor mats and blankets and rearranges the trinkets he’s acquired and kills an hour before admitting to himself that he’s stalling.

The sun is beginning to set when he leaves the village, flying towards the lab as the sky faded colors. The door to the lab was locked for the night but the lights were still on inside, something he was familiar with now as a sign that Shuri was going to be staying late. His beads opened the door and he let himself in.

Shuri looked up when he walked in, not saying a word because her expression said enough. He walked over to the table where Steve is laying, unconscious for now. A set of Kimoyo beads is around his wrist, blinking intermittently. He has an IV bag connected to him, something Bucky hadn’t really seen in use in Wakanda. Either the situation was dire or something about Wakanda’s normal tech wasn’t agreeing with his body.

“How is he?” Bucky asks, standing at the side of the bed and looking down on Steve.

“Stable.” Shuri says simply.

“Erik explained what happened, did the blood tests come back?”

She didn’t reply and Bucky forces back a frustrated sigh. “I know you’re mad at me. Can you just tell me what’s wrong with him? I’m sorry I freaked out earlier I’m just, still trying to work some stuff out in my head.”

She sighs from across the room and swipes her window to her tablet as she walks over to stand next to him. “My reputation will be ruined if you are not fixed after two years.” She teased without a smile on her face. Bucky however does smile a little.

“All he asked you to do was fix my head. The rest was just you being nice. Coulda dropped me off on the edge of the forest and let me work it out on my own.”

She rolled her eyes but chuckled softly and he knew he was forgiven. _“Idiot.”_

_“Still your favorite.”_

She tapped the tablet to the table and Steve’s full body scan materialized above him, showing the path of his circulatory system. The veins pulsed with each heartbeat and flecks of blue cycled through them everywhere except around the wound in his stomach where it looked like the flecks were just avoiding the area.

“The serum in his blood is unable to get near the wound to heal it. It is not life-threatening, he is still healing at a normal human rate but”

“But the serum shouldn’t be able to be stopped like that.” Bucky added, looking at the veins in confusion.

“Exactly. I could not figure out what was going wrong.” She tapped her beads and a nearly identical human outline appeared above Steve’s, though this one was noticeably missing an arm. “I cross referenced his blood with yours and found this.”

Another tap and flecks of purple appeared in Steve’s blood, though they seemed to be centered on the spot where the serum stopped.

“Something is blocking the serum. Can you flush it out?”

“That is the problem. I cannot just give him a blood transfusion. Because of the serum, non-treated blood could dilute his own too far and pose further issues.”

“Give him mine.”

“I already considered it. The blood type is not the same. I need to do further research into how the serum works in his body; it is not the same as it is with yours. The two serums are very similar, nearly identical but different enough that I cannot predict what might happen. I read in the HYDRA files that attempts were made to give your blood to others in hopes of giving them the same effects as the serum but it lost its potency almost the moment it was removed. There is something in the serum that reacts to both of you and you two alone.”

“A pair of super-soldiers who can’t help each other cause we weren’t made the same way. Course it couldn’t be so simple.”

She nodded with a frustrated sigh. “But he is still healing at a normal human rate and with Wakandan tech. He should be on his feet by tomorrow. He will just be vulnerable in that spot until I find a way to clear the toxin.”

“And the others? They all know about this?”

“I told them what I knew and thought before the blood tests came back. Agent Romanov suggested you give him blood and was not happy when I tried to explain it did not work that easily.”

“She doesn’t like being told no. Where are they all now?”

“T’Challa took them back to the palace to rest. They will stay in the guest rooms until Captain Rogers is healed I assume.”

“And you’re staying here?”

“I am going to try and find a solution to”

“Nope c’mon, call for some dinner and we’ll play cards. You need a break.” Bucky interrupted with a brotherly smile.

Several hours later Steve wakes up.

 _“You cheated! I saw you!”_ Shuri says, waving her cards in Bucky’s face. They are sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by empty dishes.

 _“I did not. You’re just mad because I don’t let you win like T’Challa does.”_ Bucky smirked.

_“How could he? I’m smarter than both of you!”_

_“Calm down sweetheart, cards aren’t just about smarts, its mostly luck.”_

_“It’s not luck if you’re cheating!”_

“Where’m I?” Steve groaned from behind them. In an instant they are both on their feet and rushing to the side of the bed, but Bucky slows down and hangs back out of Steve’s view while Shuri moves closer.

“Captain, my name is Shuri. Your friends brought you here to Wakanda to get medical attention for your injury.”

“Right, right, we talked before I went under.” Steve says, blinking blearily.

“Can you tell me what happened to you?” She asks, pulling up her tablet to take notes.

“Is Bucky alright? Is he still in cryo?” Steve asks, rubbing at his eye but wincing when it pulls the stitches in his stomach.

Shuri gives Bucky a pointed glance but he shakes his head, fears from earlier rising up. _“Stop being a child. He isn’t going to be mad at you.”_ She says and Steve knits his brows together in confusion at the language switch.

Bucky wrung his hands for a moment before taking a breath and standing up a bit straighter. He was just gonna walk over there and see what happened. No stressing, no worrying, that can all come later.

_“It’s not that I’m worried about.”_

And man do Steve’s eyes widen as Bucky walks into his field of vision.

“Buck.” He breathes, a smile stretching onto his face.

“Hey Steve.” Bucky replies, surprised at the words ‘sunshine smile’ jumping to the front of his memory.

“Wow, you look great.” Steve says, trying to sit up, but Shuri is quick to force him back down.

“It’s all thanks to Shuri. She’s a hell of a doctor and a scientist and well, everything.”

“Stop it.” She laughs, mock punching his metal shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” Steve suddenly says to him, his smile fading away to an apologetic frown. “I meant to come as soon as you were out of cryo but then there was an attack and it took longer than we wanted it to to get it all sorted out and then the phone got destroyed because some guy managed to get a lucky shot off and look I’m sorry.”

 _“Told you so.”_ Shuri mutters, busying herself with something to give them the illusion of privacy.

 _“Technically Erik did.”_ Bucky tells her but then adds, “It’s okay, we figured something must’ve happened like that. I’ll admit, when Natasha showed up I didn’t believe her. Thought she hadn’t even met up with you. Guess I was wrong since she was the one who brought you here.”

Steve doesn’t comment on Bucky’s use of Xhosa, either doesn’t care or doesn’t really understand. “That’s what she said when she got back. Didn’t blame you for being cautious, but did say it was an odd experience to have you yelling at her in Russian with Sinatra playing in the background. Sinatra though, really? You were always more of a Benny Goodman kinda guy.”

Bucky can’t help but chuckle and shake his head. “I find I like him now more in my old age.”

Shuri groaned at his comment and said “You are both so old.”

“Who was the one that threw me a hundred year birthday party?” He teased her.

“Hundred years old? I guess I’m getting pretty close to.” Steve said thoughtfully.

“Don’t even bother, she already won with mine. Nothing you can do could compare.” He launches into an explanation and doesn’t even notice Shuri sneak away with a smile on her face until a chair appears next to him. She winks at him and says she’ll be back in the morning and not to forget to tell him about his best girl.

“You got a girlfriend out here?” Steve asks in surprise and Shuri laughs on her way out.

“Yeah, she’s cutest thing you’ll meet. Real pretty black fur, gorgeous spots, loves to cuddle. Her names Lacey.” Bucky laughs.

“You aren’t talking about a dame are you?” And that leads Bucky into just one of the many stories he tells Steve about his time in Wakanda.

When Shuri comes back the next morning, the rest of the Avengers in tow, Bucky realizes they’d been up all night. It had been so easy to just talk with Steve again. He doesn’t even know what he had been worried about.Granted he had done most of the talking, Steve still weak from blood loss but it had just felt so natural he starts to think that maybe Bucky Barnes hadn’t disappeared that day back in ’45.


	46. The Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Direct continuation of last chapter. I have something a little different planned for the next chapter, so we'll see how that goes. Also a reminder that while I love me a good Stucky fic, this will not become that. The closest it MIGHT get is a mention of an implied past relationship.

“I left you at midnight and I come back to see you are still awake?” Shuri says, frowning at them both.

“Sorry doc.” Bucky says with a teasing smirk and Shuri rolls her eyes.

 _“Super soldiers.”_ She mutters under her breath as she walks to her worktable.

Bucky turns back to say something to Steve but his words get caught in his throat when Natasha is standing in front of him.

 _“Despite what you may think Barnes, I do sometimes tell the truth.”_ She greets in Russian, her accent smooth and perfect. It’d been some time since he’d heard Russian and it takes a moment to clear the cobwebs from his head before he replies.

 _“Can’t blame a guy for not trusting an Agent of your caliber.”_ He says, standing from his chair. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Sam tense and his hand go to his hip. Of course he’d think the worst if he were unable to understand the conversation.

“No fighting in the lab.” Shuri calls, glancing over at them.

Natasha’s lips quirk into a small smile and she puts her hand on Bucky’s shoulder. _“I’ll tell you anything I know about the last two years. Doubt he’ll give you all the details. But it’s been a rough couple years since you saw him last.”_ Her tone is friendly despite her words being more serious.

 _“I appreciate it Natalia.”_ He says, smiling a little.

_“I already told you, it’s Natasha now.”_

_“Is that any way to talk to the one who taught you all you know?”_ He teased and her smile widened as she chuckled.

“Anyone super confused right now?” Sam spoke up, still watching them both carefully.

Both assassins turned to look at him with identical expressions that conveyed that they knew more than him and Sam nodded “Okay and now I’m just creeped out. So I’m gonna talk to Steve while the Russians hash themselves out.”

Shuri walked over, tablet in hand. Despite being the shortest in the room she pushed past the crowd of them around Steve and said “If you want him to heal, I need room to work.” Her tone light but serious.

“Okay doc, we get it, we’ll get outta your way.” Sam said with a laugh.

The three of them stepped over to her worktable and Sam started to look at her gadgets with interest. “Wouldn’t touch anything if I were you.” Bucky advised as Shuri started talking with Steve to see how he was feeling.

Sam pulled his hands back quickly from what he had been looking at and then turned to Bucky.

“So you been good man? You seem a lot better since well” He asked, arms casually crossed.

Bucky nodded and smiled a little “Yeah, first couple weeks outta cryo weren’t easy but everyone here has been great. I feel more like myself now than I have since before I was drafted.” He admitted and Sam’s smile widened.

“They got you talking to anyone ‘bout what happened to you? Anyone who can even relate a little?” he asked and Bucky was confused for a second before Natasha spoke up.

“I don’t think now’s the time for therapist Sam to show up.” She commented, smacking Sam lightly on the shoulder.

“Hey it’s my job, Steve and I talked through some stuff, figured I’d offer you the same.” He said, looking back at Bucky.

“As much as I appreciate it, I’m good. Got plenty of people who are willing to listen.” Bucky says, looking at Shuri with a small smile. His beads suddenly flashed gold and he added “Speaking of.” He stepped away to answer the call, though when the small hologram of Erik appeared, Sam and Natasha could still get a clear view.

“You with your boy?” Erik asked without greeting.

Bucky laughed and said “Yeah, guess even when you don’t know how to help, you still have a point. We’re at the lab, Shuri’s checking up on him if you want to stop by and say hello.”

“I’ll swing by in a bit, finishing rounds of the Border tribelands. Lemme know where ya'll end up if you leave.”

Bucky nods an agreement and the hologram dissipates. After a moment Sam says “Okay, gonna ignore the magic hologram bracelet for a minute so I can ask what his deal is? Thought the king only had a sister?”

Bucky glanced back at Shuri and then looked back to Sam and Natasha. “It’s kinda a complex situation but short version is he’s their cousin. T’Challa put him in charge of guarding the boarder, anyone enters he knows about it, legally or illegally. He used to be Special Ops with the US Army so he’s kind of my talking to guy if I had to pick someone who could relate.” Bucky explains, circling back to answer Sam’s earlier question.

“You really have something good going on here don’t you?” Natasha said, sounding a little surprised.

“Yeah you could say that I guess.” He said with a fond smile.

Sam looked back to the table as Shuri was helping Steve sit up, he had a bandage around his stomach and seemed pretty weak but otherwise didn’t need help. “Take it easy the next day or two and if I hear of you so much as thinking about throwing a punch I will confine you to bed rest.” Shuri threatens and Steve smiles with a little laugh.

“Wouldn’t dream of it Doc.”

She smiles and nods approvingly. “Bucky could you show them to the guest rooms in the Palace? There should already be one prepared for Captain Rogers. _Just down the hall from your room._ ” She adds in Xhosa with a smirk.

Bucky scoffs with a smile but agrees. _“Oh and if you two are alone, use protection!”_ She calls as he starts to lead the way out of the lab. Bucky laughs and flips her the bird with his Vibranium hand, though he supposes he deserves it after all the times he and Erik teased her about the Parker kid.

“How long does it take to learn a new language? Cause I’m starting to feel left out.” Sam mutters to Steve, who chuckles instead of replying.

They talk amicably as Bucky flies them to the palace, the three of them swapping funny stories from the last few years as Bucky listens in. Occasionally he’ll make a comment to add in, but admittedly he doesn’t have much to add. His life compared to theirs has been very very different.

He leads the way through the now familiar palace halls once they land, and notices the way Steve starts to yawn, attempting to hide it behind his hand. Natasha notices and meets Bucky’s eyes and nods a little.

“This one is yours Steve.” Bucky says when they get to Steve’s room after dropping Natasha and Sam off at their own rooms and Steve’s eyes widen in surprise. Bucky holds back a chuckle, remembering the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the stuff.

“Wow, they don’t do anything by halves here do they?” He comments.

“That’s why I don’t really spend much time here.” Bucky admits and Steve looks surprised.

“Where do you stay then?” He asks.

“There’s a village about 10 klicks south of the city, right along the river. I have a hut there that’s all mine. I’ll take you if you want.” He offers.

Steve yawns widely and says, “Sounds great, let’s go.” And Bucky laughs.

“I think we both need a nap after we stayed up all night.”

“And whose fault is that jerk?” Steve teases.

“You’re the one who took his sweet time getting here punk.” Bucky replies in kind.

“Guess I did huh?” Steve says thoughtfully and Bucky puts his hand on Steve’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. I understand. You don’t need to feel guilty.”

“Can’t help it Buck. We haven’t had a chance to really talk since well,”

“Since I started to fight the conditioning off. But I wasn’t really myself back then either. We have plenty of time to catch up, I’m not going anywhere.” He turns Steve towards the bed and gives him a friendly little shove. “So take a nap and I’ll come wake you for dinner. Shuri’s Ma’ll want to meet you.”

Steve chuckles and turns back around, pulling Bucky into a hug, mindful of his injury. “It’s good to have you back Buck.”

“Thanks for not giving up on me.”

“I told you before, way back before we even knew what HYDRA was, I’m with you till the end of the line.” Steve says with a smile. 

"I think I'm starting to believe it." 


	47. Steve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mentioned last chapter that I wanted to try something a little different for this one. It's told from Steve's POV and while I'm pretty happy with how the chapter turned out, I'm not sure how good I am at writing Steve. 
> 
> Also the next few chapters will have a bit of plot too them, nothing too crazy but again just trying something different.
> 
> Let me know what you think!

Steve Rogers wakes to the feeling of his wrist vibrating in conjunction to a knock on the door. He looks around in confusion for a second at the unfamiliar room before remembering where he is.

“Steve? You alive in there?” Bucky’s voice says from the doorway and Steve can’t help but smile a little. He’d had worries for Bucky’s safety and sanity in the back of his head ever since he watched frost fog up the glass of the cryo chamber. But his fears had been unfound the moment he saw Bucky’s quirk of a smile in that futuristic lab.

“Yeah I’m up, gimme a second.” He replies, climbing out of the bed that was almost too big for him, almost. He stretched his arms above his head but quickly brought them back at the sharp pull of pain in his stomach. The Princess had explained everything and while he was grateful that there wasn’t really any permanent damage, the fact that whoever it was that attacked him was able to find a way to block the serum was worrying.

He opened the door to Bucky standing there in some sort of fancy patterned tunic. He’s about to open his mouth to apologize for not having a change of clothes when Bucky hands him a bundle of cloth similarly colored to his own. “I’m about the only other person close to your size in this country, these should at least fit well enough. You need help getting out of the uniform?”

As Bucky shows him how to drape and pin and wrap the tunic he can’t help but feel out of place. Clearly Bucky is practically Wakandan himself at this point. He spoke the language with the same easy fluency that he spoke English or Russian or French, then again he’d always been the better one at learning new languages. He wore the clothes like he had been wearing them his whole life and he teased the Princess the same way he’d teased Becca way back when.

“It’s a good look for you Steve.” Bucky comments when he’s finished draping the last piece. Steve looks at himself in the mirror and privately disagrees.

The beads around Bucky’s wrist flash lavender and he taps one quickly, saying something in the native language with a joking tone to his voice. “C’mon, we’re gonna be late to dinner.” He says to Steve after his beads go dark. Steve follows him through the winding halls like a lost puppy and knows he’s going to get lost the first time he tries to find his room alone.

Dinner makes him feel further like an outsider despite the occasional tap of Bucky’s knee against his. The royal family is nothing but polite and welcoming, offering explanations of the food and the traditions and how they’ve been coping with being known on a global scale. More than once Sam meets his eyes with a look of being well out of his depth.

Another man about T’Challa’s age saunters in halfway through the meal and earns a disapproving look from the Queen but a chuckle from both Bucky and Shuri. He and Bucky grab each other’s wrists in a greeting gesture and say something in the local language that Shuri comments on and Steve is caught off-guard by the uncomfortable twisting feeling he gets in his stomach seeing the wide smile on Bucky’s face.

The newcomer introduces himself as Erik and Steve vaguely remembers meeting him when they first landed in Wakanda though admittedly he’d been more than a little out of it. Dinner continues and the familial teasing only grows, Bucky trading barbs and jokes with the others as easy as breathing. He looks to Steve every so often, his eyes asking if he’s doing all right. Steve always nods but the look Natasha gives him shows she isn’t so easily fooled.

After dinner it’s Shuri who leads them back to their room, talking non-stop about the Palace and the city and the tech. Most of it goes over Steve’s head and Sam’s to he suspects, but they don’t stop her. They arrive back at the guest wing and she offers to give them a tour of the city tomorrow, they’re about to agree when Bucky says something to Shuri in the language and she laughs, replying with a something that sounds awfully teasing. Bucky rolls his eyes and replies, ruffling her braids. In that moment Steve can’t help but to see Rebecca Barnes standing in Shuri’s place.

“I will meet you here in the morning Agent Romanov, Mr. Wilson.” She says nodding to each of them.

“What about Steve?” Sam says before he can ask for himself.

“I think Steve ‘n I deserve a chance to catch up.” Bucky says, glancing at Steve. Natasha shrugs and Sam raises an eyebrow in amusement but also relents after a moment.

“Fine me and Nat’ll chill with the King. You two go have your old man time.”

“We will.” Bucky assures him with a wide smile.

They bid each other goodnight and outside his door, Bucky taps his beads to Steve’s. “If you tap this bead, it’ll connect you to mine. Lemme know if you need anything. I’m just down the hall. It’s great to have you here Steve. I can’t wait to show you around tomorrow. You’ll love it.” Bucky says and he is just so excited, Steve can’t help but return his smile despite not feeling so excited himself.

No matter how many times he assures himself that everything is perfect now that Bucky is healed and happy and back to his old self, he just can’t shake the feeling of being an outsider. Like he’s been replaced by the entirety of Wakanda.

The next morning brings some improvement. The pain in his stomach has faded to a dull ache that he can easily ignore and only hurts more when he tries to stretch and do a few push-ups. His mood has also improved and he is actually a little excited to spend the day with Bucky, just the two of them.

The bead Bucky had pointed out to him lights up silver, illuminating an intricate design he couldn’t see hidden among the dark material of the beads. He taps it and Bucky’s face appears from his wrist. He is surprised and disoriented for a minute and spends a solid ten seconds trying to figure out how to hold his wrist so he can actually talk to him without staring at the ground.

“Ready to head out? We can pick up breakfast on the way unless you’re hungry?”

“I’m good, I’m just going to follow your lead today.”

Bucky laughs and says “Then I’ll meet you in the hall in five minutes.”

Steve agrees and before he can struggle to figure out how to turn the hologram off it disappears on its own, probably Bucky’s doing. When he’d gotten back to the room last night, several clothes had been waiting for him on the bed. Sam or Natasha must have had a hand in it because his civvies from the Quinjet were among the more Wakandan style garments.

Bucky is leaning against the wall fiddling with his beads when Steve opens his door. “Ready?” He asks, an excited smile on his face.

“Lead the way.” Steve says, gesturing down the hall. Bucky leads him easily through the palace and out into one of the gardens.

“I thought it might be fun to walk to my village. It’s not that far and there’s pretty much no such thing as bad weather here and Shuri said you were healed enough but if you don’t feel up to it we can take my ship”

“Buck you’re rambling. Whatever you want is fine. I can deal with walking a bit, probably be good to stretch anyway. I’m just excited to spend time with you.”

“’M sorry, I’m just really glad that you’re here finally.” He says, rubbing the back of his neck with his metal hand. It’s more refined and impressive than the old one had been, likely Shuri’s design. “I’ve missed you.” He admits. “Ever since I really got my memories back I’ve just wanted to see you and to know that you were okay. And you know what I’m just gonna stop rambling about my emotions and show you around.”

“Sounds great.” Steve says with a chuckle, Sam had suggested that he didn’t try to push and just to let Bucky do things the way he was comfortable with because they weren’t sure just how healed he was. Granted now after seeing him and talking with him it was pretty clear there was nothing to worry about but it was easier to keep going the way he had planned.

Bucky leads him out of the Palace grounds, saluting the guards at the gate with a smile. The quickly enter the main city and aside from the handful of skyscrapers most of the buildings are no more than a couple stories tall and look very old. Men and women are setting up stands in front of many of them. Bucky is telling him all about the town and mentioning names that go right over his head and saying things that remind him of all the times they got in trouble when they were kids.

He stops them at a random stall with a woman selling fruit and greets her in the local language, a wide charming smile on his face. All Steve can think is ‘there’s that good old Barnes charm’. The woman hands him a basket filled with assorted fruits and he gives her a handful of coins. They say what he presumes are goodbyes and they’re off again.

“So when did you learn the language?” Steve asks as Bucky hands him an unfamiliar fruit.

“Xhosa? I started trying to learn pretty soon after Shuri told me I was cured. I was tired of feeling left out of conversations and once I moved out of the palace it became kind of necessary. Most everyone here under a certain age speaks at least a little English but not all of them.” He takes a bite of a fruit that looks similar to the one he’s given Steve so he follows Bucky’s lead and does the same. It’s sweet and tangy and unlike anything he’s ever eaten before.

They stop a few more times at different stalls and Bucky makes small talk and then makes a purchase. Once or twice the woman or man who is running the stall look at Steve and then ask Bucky something with a knowing smile, who nods usually and introduces Steve.

“They’re from my village. I uh, talk about you kind of often so they’re excited to finally meet you.”

“You talk to them about me?” Steve asks.

“Course I do, you’re my best friend.” Bucky says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Suddenly Steve feels very guilty for thinking Bucky was replacing him.

It’s nearly midday by the time they actually get out of the city and onto a well-worn dirt road that leads into the jungle.

“So what happened to give you that?” Bucky finally asks, gesturing at Steve’s stomach.

He’d managed to dodge the question in its full extent when Shuri had asked yesterday but this time there was no getting around it. He took a deep breath and then said, “I chose to engage a threat that I shouldn’t have and because of it got myself hurt and Nat nearly killed. We’ve been hunting down the remaining HYDRA agents and bases, trying to get rid of them once and for all. Nat got a tip about one in Ukraine that was still active because a woman who calls herself Madame HYDRA was running it out of an old weapons warehouse leftover from the Cold War.”

Bucky was listening intently; of course anything about HYDRA would get his attention.

“I guess they knew we were coming because there were about three dozen guys waiting for us. We should have just pulled out and figured out a better way but I insisted we just go in. Madame HYDRA was part of the group so I went after her. I think she’s the one who stabbed me but can’t be sure because there were so many of them. Sam cleared enough of them out that we were able to get out of there ourselves but Nat nearly got shot, clipped her ear. All and all just a big mistake.”

It was hard to admit his failures, he’d always struggled but for some reason talking to Bucky about it was easy. Maybe because he’s made so many mistakes himself or just because it was Bucky and looking at him just brought Steve back to Brooklyn.

“I think I remember her.” Bucky finally said, looking up at the trees, deep in thought. “Don't think I ever met her but heard a lot. Apparently she led part of HYDRA for a bit, had her own group separate from where I was based. Called herself Viper I think, had a preference for poison as a torture method.” He fell silent again, brows knit together in thought. “They used it on me once.” He finally said, but his tone was slightly unsure. 

“Buck I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

“No, I think I should be apologizing to you. She must’ve developed whatever they used on you to stop me. My blood is all they had access to.” He let out a bitter sigh. “Guess the Winter Soldier’s still hurting you, even if he’s out of my head for good.”

“I don’t blame you, it’s not your fault.” Steve said, putting his hand on Bucky’s shoulder.

Bucky shook his head and said, “I know. This even less than some of the stuff I did. Not like I told them to take my blood and create a toxin that can debilitate a super soldiers healing.”

They were deep in the jungle and if it weren’t for the path, Steve would think they were lost in the trees, no signs of civilization anywhere.

“I need to call Shuri and tell her. Might help her develop and anti-toxin somehow.” Bucky said and Steve nodded.

Bucky tapped at his beads until Shuri’s face appeared. Steve tuned out the conversation, he didn’t need to hear Bucky telling Shuri about the mistakes Captain America had made. They didn’t stop walking however and by the time the trees began to thin and a village came into view, Bucky was finishing the call.

He lowered his wrist and then gave Steve a smile but it felt forced. “It might not help but at least she has more information now. If I know her, she’ll have something within a few days. Now let me show you around.”

Just like that the matter was over for now and either Bucky was very skilled in hiding his worry or he’d really learned to compartmentalize and be patient. He must have noticed the surprise on Steve’s face and shrugged. “Nothing we can do but wait. Worrying ‘bout it won’t help. Why not take the time to enjoy ourselves while you heal?”

It went against everything Steve knew to sit still while there was a threat out there but Bucky did have a point. From what they knew Viper wasn’t planning anything world ending besides reviving HYDRA and things like that took a lot of time and planning. She wouldn’t be able to do anything major in the next week besides maybe move bases and now since they knew who they were looking for it’d be even easier to find her.

“You know what, you’re right. I’m just so used to a threat being an immediate pressing danger, taking a chance to heal sounds great.”

Bucky smiled and said “C’mon then, Amandi is going to be excited to meet you. You’ll love her. She reminds me of that old woman who lived the floor below us, what was her name?”

“Debra I think.”

“Yeah Ms. Debbie that’s what it was. But Amandi is great, doesn’t speak much by way of English but I’ll translate, it’ll be great.” Steve couldn’t keep the smile from his face hearing Bucky tell him all about the different people who he lived in the village with, and his smile only widened when a gaggle of kids met them at the edge of town and nearly tackled Bucky to the ground with grins on their faces and laughter filling the air.


	48. Shuri

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone want some hella cute Shuri and Bucky brofluff? Good, cause here you go. <3

Despite all the time spent catching up with him, Bucky had forgotten about Steve’s big mouth and his inability to think before speaking sometimes. He also underestimated how protective Shuri had grown of him.

They were in the lab, Shuri poking at Steve’s stomach with some sort of scanner, checking on how he had healed. Natasha was typing away on a handheld tablet, trying to get Intel on Viper’s current location with Sam peeking over her shoulder.

“I think you are as healed as you will get currently Captain.” Shuri declared. “I wish there was more I could do for you but without the full components of the toxin I cannot created an antidote.”

“That’s why ‘Find toxin’ has been added to the list of mission objectives.” Sam comments with a confident smile.

“Speaking of” Natasha says, tapping at her screen and holding it up so a holographic layout map of a warehouse was displayed in the air. “Our friends haven’t moved but they probably reinforced their defenses. It’ll be a harder fight this time.”

“I will join you. HYDRA is not something I have any desire of seeing continue.” T’Challa spoke up, getting a little smile from Shuri.

Bucky met Steve’s eyes as Steve said “Whatd’ya think doc? Buck’s been sitting around long enough, he cleared for active duty?” He had a wry smile on his face that Bucky returned slightly.

He did not expect Shuri’s face to fall and her expression to curl into a frown. In an instant she was in front of Steve and shouting at him in furious Xhosa. Steve’s eyes were wide and he looked beyond confused and a little bit frightened. Natasha had her hand at her waistband where her gun was stashed and Sam looked just as confused as Steve.

Shuri was breathing heavily by the time T’Challa got his wits back and shouted _“Shuri!”_ at her. Bucky had missed a lot of the beginning of her rant but he’d heard plenty to hint that she wasn’t happy that Steve thought he’d just been sitting around playing in the jungle for two years. There was a lot of profanity laced between her actual complaints but the message was clear enough, Steve didn’t know how Bucky had struggled to get to this point and Shuri was mad that he would just assume he wanted to join another fight.

T’Challa stepped forward and put his hand on Shuri’s shoulder, turning her around. She yanked her arm away and waved her finger at him, her ire redirected. _“You know I am right! He doesn’t understand the beginning of what happened while he was off on his stupid hero vacation!”_

 _“You are embarrassing yourself and our family in front of our guests. It is not your place to throw a tantrum like a child!”_ T’Challa snapped, his tone every inch that of a king’s.

 _“Shuri. Please. I understand why you’re mad but it’s not his fault. He’s an idiot and if he knew what you were mad about he’d probably agree with you. He made a stupid comment to try and be funny that’s all.”_ Bucky said, trying to calm her down.

She huffed out a breath and turned to run out of her lab but Bucky caught her hand with his Vibranium one. She looked at him quickly and he could see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. She looked at him pleadingly, she knew she’d made a show of herself and just wanted to be out of the lab right now. He understood and gave a small nod, thumbing the communication bead on her bracelet to tell her that he was ready to listen when she wanted to talk.

He let go of her and watched her leave at a slower pace, the lab silent except for the sound of the door closing behind her.

“So anyone want to tell those of us who don’t speak Wakandan what the hell that was about?” Sam said, looking at Bucky and T’Challa.

Bucky looked at T’Challa, the King with a thoughtful frown on his face. _“Go.”_ He finally said. _“This is not a matter of my business. I will explain to your friends.”_ Bucky nodded once and flashed an apologetic look at Steve before jogging out the door after Shuri.

He found her in her room at the Palace, Okoye guarding the door. “She will not see anyone and will not tell me what happened.” She said with a concerned frown.

“Steve, Captain Rogers, made a comment that she didn’t really take well and exploded at him. T’Challa stayed back to explain but I think she and I need to talk about why she was so upset.”

Okoye smiled softly and nodded a little as she stepped to the side. Bucky smiled gratefully and knocked on the door. “Shuri, can I come in? We need to talk about what happened.”

_“Leave me alone!”_

_“Shuri please, T’Challa is worried.”_

_“Then why isn’t he here?”_ She shot back.

_“Because he knows this isn’t between the two of you, it’s between us. He is worried about you but wants to respect your feelings. You know how much he cares.”_

He heard her grumble and what sounded like her bed sheets being kicked around but also the sound of the door unlocking. Okoye gave a small sigh of relief and whispered “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Bucky whispered back before opening the door.

Shuri was laying facedown on her bed, the covers a tangle around her. He walked over and sat on the edge, leaning back on his metal arm. He expected Shuri to stay quiet and was working on the speech he was gonna give when she spoke up.

“You never mentioned how clueless he was in all the times you told me about him.” She said, face buried in her pillow.

Bucky chuckled and said, “Yeah, he always has been. Rarely knew when to keep his mouth shut. Got us both in a lot of trouble when we were kids. But it’s like I told you back there, he didn’t mean anything by it, I promise. He’s just excited that we can get out there together.”

She turned onto her side, her back to him.

“Does he think it was so simple as flipping a switch and you were fixed? That I did not spend weeks trying to figure out how to undo the programming and that we spent months helping you learn how to be your own person again? He was not here all the times I read those words or through the nights we spent in the lab. He was not here to defend you from Stark or to see you become Wakandan in every way that matters. He knows Bucky Barnes but he does not know You.” She was getting choked up, her breathing heavier as she tried to hold back tears.

Bucky was astonished; he’d never realized how Shuri felt about his whole recovery. At first he’d thought he was nothing more than another project for her, a problem to be solved. It was after she’d helped him move into the village that he realized she thought of him as more than that, that they were friends. He had never considered how his recovery might have affected her.

“Shuri, I, I don’t know what to say. I didn’t realize that ” he trailed off, unsure how to express what he was feeling.

“That I care for you as much as I do T’Challa? That I think of you as another brother? That Mama thinks of you as another son? That we all want to see you happy?” Her near sobs had turned to weak laughter. “You really are dense, _idiot_.”

Bucky smiled and felt a tear run down his cheek. “C’mon kid, you can’t just spring all these emotions on me.” He complained through laughter as he wiped his face of tears. “You’re making me cry.”

She turned to look for herself and smiled a little, tears flowing on her face. “C’mere kid.” He said, laying down and hugging her the way he always had when Becca was upset. And man they must've looked ridiculous, a laughing sobbing mess in her mess of sheets.

When they both finally calmed down and the only sound in the room was their breathing Bucky said “You still hafta apologize to Steve. He’s probably worried sick that you’re gonna kick him out of Wakanda for offending you.” He chuckled.

She let out a sigh but said “Fine. Later though? I just want to stay here for a little while.” And she sounded so much like his own sisters, how could he possibly say no?

Okoye came in sometime after the room had fallen silent to check on them and smiled fondly at the sight. She silently took a picture with her Kimoyo beads and sent it to T’Challa with the caption “My King, I believe you’ve been replaced.”


	49. Viper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hello I'm back. 
> 
> A couple of things before the chapter. First off, thank you to all 1000 of you who have given this story kudos! I am so unbelievably flattered by the response this story has received and I want to thank each and every one of you for the part you have played in this.
> 
> Secondly, this is where we really get into my attempt to write a plot so I hope it's at least mildly interesting. Madame HYDRA/Viper is a real villain in the Marvel comics and appears most consistently in Captain America comics. The way I am using her isn't quite compliant with her comic self but she's kind of interesting so why not use her? 
> 
> Thirdly, sorry not sorry in advance :)

“I will not have you returning to Wakanda injured with your tails between your legs again.” Shuri declared, tapping her Kimoyo beads to her worktable. The Vibranium sand that covered it fell away revealing a lineup of weapons and gadgets.

Natasha and Sam stepped forward instantly out of curiosity, looking at everything Shuri had to offer, but Steve was quick to say “We’re honored your highness but this isn’t necessary.” Both he and Shuri had apologized to each other after she’d explained herself but he still seemed to walk on eggshells to avoid upsetting her again.

“Captain, when did more help ever hurt anyone? The worst that could happen is you do not use it, what is the harm in having it just in case?” She said and Bucky watched her pick up the White Wolf mantle from the end of the table and look at him pointedly.

_“I wasn’t going to bring it. Too much of a hassle to explain.”_ He said and she rolled her eyes.

_“Then I will say you are not fit to help them.”_

_“Are you blackmailing me?”_

_“She is serious. Just take it or else she will never stop.”_ T’Challa spoke up with a tone that told of personal experience.

“So what’s that then? And why don’t you want us to know?” Sam asked, arms crossed over his chest.

“It’s, complicated to explain. But it’s something she made just for me, it won’t be necessary.”

“What’s the harm in having it just in case?” Steve echoed with a smirk.

“Punk.”

“Jerk.”

“Are you adults or are you not?” Shuri asked and Bucky flashed her a charming smile.

“You should know me better than that by now.”

_“Ugh, Supersoldiers.”_

They end up stocking themselves fully with every weapon Shuri could think of. Knives and guns, both Wakandan and American and Bucky sees Steve look at him when he picks up a collapsible energy spear. T’Challa takes his normal assortment of mission items and Bucky hears him mention to Shuri that she might want to look into the controls of old tanks just in case he needs her to remote pilot something at the HYDRA base.

They argue some more about how they are going to get there, the Avengers set on taking their own Quinjet but Shuri and T’Challa insisting they take a Wakandan ship. They argue about which is stealthier, Wakandan, versus which is faster, the Quinjet but just slightly. Eventually they decide stealth is more important and pile into T’Challa’s ship that he uses for missions.

The flight to the base is near silent except for whispers of attempted conversation from Sam. As they fly over the border into Ukraine Natasha pulls up the images from the base and gives them the lowdown.

“At least 5 dozen grunts, all with HYDRA energy weapons or automatic rifles. The cameras have spotted at least three elite fighters each armed with some sort of energy shield, we’re unsure what exactly they are or the weak point if there is one. Viper is in the compound somewhere; I expect she might join the fighting to get to Steve. She is well trained in hand to hand and marksmanship and possibly uses a whip as her weapon of choice, I’ve seen conflicting accounts.”

“Our goal is to get any biologic weapons or toxins and destroy the place. Nat, you and Bucky sneak into the compound and we’ll try and draw all the attention outside to ourselves. Try to subdue Viper, I’m sure she has good Intel we can use.” Steve says and Bucky remembers Steve's leader voice far better than he thinks he should. 

They separated to prep weaponry and activate the coms as T’Challa let the autopilot take over. The ship came to a stop above the base, well above their range of detection and cloaked from sight. At least 25 grunts were clustered around outside.

“I can clear a spot to drop but it won’t be big and it’ll be a dead give away.” Sam offered with a frown, strapping on his wings.

“There is no need. Bucky if you would?” T’Challa asked, activating his suit.

“’Course.” Bucky said, pulling a gun.

He fired three rounds at T’Challa before Steve wrenched the gun from his grip. He looked ready to shout when he noticed the glow from T’Challa’s suit and the bullets crumpled harmlessly at their feet.

“His suit absorbs kinetic energy and is 100% bullet proof.” Bucky explained seeing the confusion on their faces.

“I can release it at will. I am in no danger Captain, I assure you. Any impact would do but bullets are the fastest and most effective way to charge the suit.”

Steve let go of Bucky’s wrist and looked apologetic but unsure what to say. “Gonna need to trust me Steve, I’m not gonna turn on anyone. There is nothing in my head that is gonna make me want to shoot him or you or anyone else, I promise.”

“Just, warn a guy next time.” Steve settled on, though it didn’t sound like the joke he meant it to be.

Bucky nodded and said, “This is me, warning you that I am going to fire my gun several more times.”

“When did you start remembering how to be such a sass?” Steve said rhetorically.

To which Bucky replied with a smirk “You’ve met Shuri, it was practically lesson one after don’t kill everyone.” And then he proceeded to shoot T’Challa six times for comedic effect.

“Yes thank you Sergeant Barnes. Can we move on to defeating the bad guys?” Natasha said when he lowered his gun.

Bucky relented finally and moved on to reload the gun and sync his com with Natasha’s.

“Don’t know how you lived with him for so long without tearing your hair out.” Sam commented quietly to Steve, who shrugged.

“You get used to it, but I’m cutting him some slack. It’s his first time being out in the field since he’s himself again.” Neither of them noticed the way Bucky stiffened somewhat when he overheard the comment.

“Enough chatter kiddos, let’s get moving. HYDRA isn’t going to fight itself.” Natasha said slipping her gun into its holster.

T’Challa stepped over to a decorative circle pattern on the floor of the ship and tapped his beads quickly. “The ship will remain here until I call for it with my Kimoyo beads. I will keep them busy until you land.” He said and Bucky felt like he could hear the smirk in T’Challa’s voice.

_“Good luck.”_ Bucky said.

_“And to you my friend.”_ T’Challa replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

Suddenly the floor dropped out from under him and the rest of the Avengers watched as he fell, hitting the ground in a massive burst of purple energy, knocking at least a dozen of the grunts off their feet.

Sam leapt out a moment later, Steve holding on as they spiraled in a controlled fall.

Bucky handed Natasha a highly compact device that acted as a parachute and they followed the moment the ground troops were distracted.

Their plan was going perfectly, the ground team easily dispatching grunt after grunt without much struggle. The appearance of one of the elite guards posed a bit of a problem until they realized his energy shield could not block the kinetic energy bursts from T’Challa’s suit.

The stealth team were having a similarly easy time, both more than well trained when it came to sneaking around undetected. They made it to what looked to be the labs where the chemicals were manufactured when things went south.

Natasha looked at the vial for a few seconds and then at Bucky before shrugging and deciding to just go for it. The second the vial was lifted, the lights in the room flashed red and bars slammed down in the doorway and the windows. “Whoops.” She muttered, pulling her gun in preparation.

“Does she think this is Indiana Jones or something? Is a giant boulder going to roll down from the ceiling?” She said with a sigh.

_“Focus Natalia!”_ Bucky snapped in Russian as he heard the click-clack of heels and the stomping of combat boots coming down the hall towards them.

“Well, I expected to catch a spider but a long lost soldier far from home, that is a surprise.” A woman said, stepping in front of the door. She looked similar to how Bucky remembered her. A woman with the body and grace of a spy but with hair the color of snakeskin and lips tinted to match.

“It’s a bit of an odd choice to call yourself Madame HYDRA when their colors are black and red, not green and slightly lighter green.” Natasha said bluntly.

“Silence!” Viper snapped and the other two elite guards stepped into view on either side of her, guns trained on Natasha and Bucky. But then her frown softened into a smirk and she said “Don’t waste the ammo, I have something much more entertaining in mind.”

_“Do you trust me?”_ Bucky whispered to Natasha under his breath.

_“About as far as I can throw you, which admittedly isn’t far. You’re a big guy.”_

_“I’m going to need you to trust me more than that Natalia.”_

_“Longing.”_ Viper enunciated in clear Russian and Natasha’s expression dropped when she saw Bucky freeze stiff out of the corner of her eye.

“Princess said you were cured right?” She asked quickly.

_“Rusted.”_ Viper continued and Bucky’s hands clenched to fists.

“C’mon Barnes. You told us you were good.” Natasha said, taking a step away from him while keeping her eyes on Viper.

_“Seventeen.”_ She continued and Bucky let out a heavy breath, his hands shaking.

“Guys we might have a situation.” Natasha said into the com.

_“Daybreak.”_ And Bucky took a step away from Natasha.

“Barnes.” She warned, looking at him warily.

_“Furnace.”_ He was breathing heavily, fingers on both hands clenching and unclenching.

_“Nine.”_

“We’re a bit busy Nat.” Steve said over the ringing of bullets against his shield.

_“Benign.”_

“I guarantee this is more important!”

_“Homecoming.”_ Bucky fell to his knees, gun falling from his hand.

Natasha took several steps away, turning to face him fully. “C’mon Barnes, you didn’t lie to us. You’re fine. Don’t do this.” She said, on the verge of pleading.

_“One.”_ Bucky clasped one hand to his head and let out a hoarse yell.

_“Focus on me Yasha! It’s me! It’s Natalia. Listen to my voice!”_ Natasha pleaded, gun trained on Bucky.

Viper’s smirk grew as she said _“Freight Car.”_

The room fell silent and Bucky’s shaking stopped. Natasha had her back nearly to the wall, eyes searching the room for an escape. “Barnes?” She asked cautiously, fearing the worst.

_“Soldat?”_ Viper said confidently, smirking at Natasha.

The Winter Soldier dutifully replied, “ _Ready to comply.”_


	50. Soldat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, wow what a response to that last chapter. Thank you all for your comments, they made my day. 
> 
> Also more milestones! 200 bookmarks! 25000+ hits! You guys are so amazing! I love you all so much for your kind words and your response to this story. 
> 
> On a bit of a sadder note, the story is winding down. This chapter was supposed to be the last one but it was getting longer than I like them to be and I didn't think I could fit in everything I wanted to, so I decided to split it. I could get all sappy here, but I'll spare you the feels for the note on the final chapter.

Steve looks up from the grunt he is fighting when he sees Natasha tumble out a second story window and roll to a stop on the dirt below. He is about to run over to her when Bucky jumps out after her and for a moment Steve relaxes. Until he realizes with horror that Bucky is the one attacking Natasha, attempting to punch her with his metal arm while she’s down, she rolls out of the way and the impact of Bucky’s fist leaves a small crater in the dirt.

A flash of green from the window above catches his eye and the scenario clicks. Natasha’s panic and call for backup, Bucky knowing of Viper from the Winter Solider experiments. The thing that wasn’t supposed to happen, did. Sam fires at Viper and manages to blow out the windowsill beneath her, sending her tumbling to the ground.

She stands up quickly and has her own gun pulled, the two remaining elite guards just behind her. T’Challa is on her in a flash, sprinting at her and taking every bullet without faltering in his step. He releases the energy when he is close enough and the guards go flying but Viper herself flips out of the range.

Steve hears T’Challa shout something at Bucky in Xhosa over the coms and then they’re a tangle of limbs on the ground when T’Challa tackles him off of Natasha. Natasha is up in a flash and firing at the stunned guards while their shields are down but is forced to take cover when they return fire.

“Sam!” Steve calls desperately.

“On it! Go!” And Sam rockets towards Natasha, releasing a tiny swarm of projectiles from his back that jet ahead of him to strike the guards. Natasha takes the chance to leap at Viper, attempting a roundhouse kick to her head that is blocked with worrying ease.

Steve starts to run to where Bucky and T’Challa are still grappling on the ground and picks up the pace when Bucky gets to his feet, aiming a handgun at T’Challa’s head.

Steve looks down at the shield Shuri had given him, the exact same weight and dimensions as the one Howard had made all those years ago but undecorated and one smooth piece of Vibranium. Steve flashes back to that day on the bridge that he had met the Winter Solider for the first time but overcomes his worry and memories to throw the shield with all his might at Bucky.

Perhaps predictably Bucky catches it with his metal hand with the same horrifying ease he had on the roof where Steve first encountered the Winter Soldier. Steve freezes as Bucky’s eyes meet his, shield held firmly in his grasp. With his hair back to the length it was before the fall and his eyes bright, Steve’s chest tightens with memories of before either of them were put on ice.

But then the corner of Bucky’s mouth twitches upwards out of the Winter Soldiers frown and for a second Steve thinks nothing of it until he realizes his own thoughts. The Winter Solider was a mindless weapon. He had no feeling or purpose besides his mission. His gaze and expression were flat and featureless. The man holding Steve’s shield was not that.

Suddenly Bucky winds his arm back to throw the shield and Steve braces to catch it but it goes sailing over T’Challa and past Natasha to catch Viper in the shoulder mid-flip. She goes flying with a cry of pain and Natasha looks towards Steve in surprise.

T’Challa is on his feet and both he and Bucky are rushing at Viper as though nothing odd had happened and once again Steve feels that twisting jealous feeling in his gut. He shakes it off quickly and runs at Viper himself, all three of them converging just as she flips out of the way.

A bullet wizzes past his ear and Steve remembers the dozen or so grunts that are left standing behind him.

“Me and Sam have them, you go after Viper!” Natasha shouts, pulling a stun baton from her back and running past them towards the grunts.

Viper is on her feet again, an uncoiled whip in one hand and a gun in the other, the barrel glowing with eerie blue light. The three of them are clustered loosely around her, all on their guard.

_“Soldat!”_ She snaps and Bucky smirks.

“Sorry Dollface, that hasn’t worked on me in years.” He says with easy confidence and a smirk on his lips, causing her eyes to widen in fury.

She turns in an instant on Bucky, shouting profanities in Russian. Steve lunges for his shield from where it lay on the ground, hoping maybe he can throw it in time to block the shot but Viper is faster.

She fires a blast from the gun and Steve shouts Bucky’s name but he watches in awe as a white suit materializes over Bucky like a second skin. It takes the blast and glows silver before it is even fully formed. In Bucky’s place stands what Steve can only imagine as a copy of the Black Panther but in white rather than black.

“I didn’t want to have to use this.” Bucky is saying as he takes a step towards Viper. She fires again but he doesn’t break his stride, forcing her to step back and towards Steve though she doesn’t seem to realize. “Do you know the worst part about that damn programming?” He continues. “It wasn’t removing the trigger words or finding someone smart enough to do it without turning me into a vegetable.” She takes another step away from him, firing again to no effect. T’Challa is silent and unmoving, though his claws are out and ready if need be.

“It was regaining my memories afterward. Everything I ever did for HYDRA and HYDRA ever did to me. Piecing itself together in my head like a gruesome puzzle. There were good memories mixed in, from my childhood and the nights spent with the Commandos shooting the shit around a fire. But a lot more of them were that chair and all the things you did to me with it.”

She is nearly in Steve’s reach now and he pulls a set of reinforced cuffs from his belt as quietly as he can.

The cowl disappears from the suit and Bucky’s eyes are blazing. _“Tell me, Madame HYDRA, did you really think your Asset wasn’t going to turn on you the first moment I could?”_ The Russian spills from his lips like poisoned honey and while Steve doesn’t understand the words, he more than understands the tone. Steve grabs her arms and in surprise she drops her weapons as he pulls her hands together and cuffs her wrists.

She struggles against him shouting the trigger words in desperate Russian and then turns to shouting profanities in German and English but there are few things that can break out of a Super Soldiers grip and an angry writhing snake isn’t one of them.

Two gunshots ring out and Bucky barely flinches as the suit his is wearing absorbs the impact, simply glancing over his shoulder at Natasha.

“That’s for beating me up.” She says as she approaches. Before he can say a word she slaps him across the cheek. “And that’s for scaring me.”

Bucky rubbed at his cheek and shrugged slightly “I deserve both of those things. But in my defense, I asked you to trust me.”

“And I said I didn’t and you told me to trust you more. You know its situations like these that make me want to trust you less.”

“If anything it should make you want to trust me more because not a single one of those damn words did a thing to me. That proves I’m fine.” Bucky said with a victorious smirk.

“I will shoot you again. Bullet proof suit or not.”

“This is a conversation that can be had after she is detained.” T’Challa said calmly, head tilted towards Viper.

That gets them all back in gear doing the normal hero wrap up jobs. Once all the soldiers are cuffed or otherwise detained and all the information downloaded from the computers in the base, Sam taps a button on his wrist panel and his miniature Redwing drones bomb the building, destroying it and all the HYDRA tech inside. It’s standard routine for the three of them at this point.

T’Challa calls the ship and they pile in once more, Sam frog-marching Viper to an improvised cell made of a force field in the hold of the ship. Bucky opens a drawer and pulls out a first aid kit, passing it to Natasha with a quiet Russian comment, her glare softens and Steve assumes it was an apology.

Bucky meets Steve’s eyes and Steve wants to shout and scold him like a proper commanding officer would. Like their commanding officers had every time the Commandos had done something that wasn’t according to orders. As their leader, Steve had always tried to take the blame. As his second in command Bucky had always been the one getting blamed for not stopping Steve.

_“Sergeant Barnes based the reports you and your squadron submitted, it is clear that not only did you not advise Captain Rogers against his plan, but you fully supported him despite the unnecessary danger it put your squad in. Is this correct?” The General was saying. Steve opened his mouth to protest, to defend Bucky but a stomp on his toes from Bucky’s boot was enough to silence him._

_“Our chances of getting in the base were better with Steve’s plan than with the one that had been decided on. There were fewer agents than we had expected and the bombing run would have destroyed any intel we could have gathered. Sneaking in to get the intel made more sense.” Bucky said, posture and tone formal even if his words were not._

_“I should have you all court-martialed.” The General sighed in exasperation. “But then we’d be out our best chance at winning this war. Your squad’s tobacco rations are cut for the month. Get out of my sight.”_

_Steve kept the smirk off his face until they were out of the tent before handing Bucky the small bundle of cigarettes that were his own ration. “Think he knows you’re the only one of us who smokes more than just when a mission goes sour?”_

_“Sometimes I wonder why I agreed to ‘Follow Captain America into the jaws of death’ you jerk. You’ve caused me nothing but trouble. I was a good solider before you showed up, got a promotion faster than anyone. And now I’m the poor schmuck that has to keep Captain America’s star spangled ass in line. ” Bucky replies with a smirk, slipping a cig between his lips as they head back to the rest of the Commandos._

_“It’s just ‘cause you’re the only one I trust to watch my six.” Steve says cockily and Bucky chuckles, making the flame of his match sway and dance as he lights up._

_“Only cause I’ve been doing it your whole damn life. I swear you’re gonna get me killed someday trying to save your ass from a fight.”_

He must have the forlorn expression on his face that Sam claims he gets when he’s thinking about the past because Bucky looks away with what seems like guilt.

“Still trust me to watch your six?” He asks so quietly and with such shame that Steve isn’t sure he was meant to hear. That maybe he’d forgotten about the enhanced hearing granted by the serum. But Bucky glances back at him expectantly and Steve falters for a moment on what to say.

“I’ve trusted you to watch out for me since the day we met. I trusted you then and I still trust you now despite everything that’s happened. I trusted James Buchanan Barnes to fight against the Winter Solider’s programming the moment I found out what they’d done to you. I trusted you to find yourself again when I found you in Budapest and when I left Wakanda without you. If all it took was one dumb plan to break that trust, well I think it woulda shattered somewhere on the border of Nazi occupied Europe seventy-five years ago.”

T’Challa is the only one besides the two of them that seemed to notice anything, glancing back at them with a tiny smile from his place in the pilots seat.

“You’re such a sap Rogers.” Bucky says loud enough for the rest to hear and Steve doesn’t miss the small glistening line tracing it’s way down his cheek.

“One of us has to be.” Steve replies, closing the distance between them to embrace Bucky. The others, aside from T’Challa, look on in confusion as the two laugh and sob in equal measure into each other’s shoulders.

And in that moment, it was like nothing had ever changed. They weren’t Captain America and the Winter Soldier or the White Wolf or whomever Bucky called himself nowadays. They were just Steve and Bucky, two best friends from Brooklyn who had grown up together and survived everything together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wanting an explanation as to why Bucky did pretend, stay tuned.


	51. End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all I am soooo sorry for the delay. I had major writers block and real life kept me from sitting down and giving this story the attention is deserves. Hopefully the fact that this chapter is over 5000 words makes up for it.
> 
> Secondly, this is the last official chapter of Musings of the White Wolf. Pretty high chances of a short little epilogue sometime in the next few days so keep an eye out for that. 
> 
> Thirdly, I want to give the most sincere and heartfelt thank you to each and every single person who read, commented, bookmarked and gave kudos. This has been such an incredible ride and I am so glad I got to share it with all of you.

They arrive back in Wakanda with spirits far lighter than when they had left Ukraine. On the trip back, none of them brought up what had happened or anything about the mission, instead choosing to swap war stories and jokes from all of their experiences. Steve tries to regale them with a story about the time the Commandos were forced to cross-dress to sneak into a Nazi controlled brothel for information, but Bucky insists he is telling the story wrong and takes over. Sam tells them about his first time trying to fly with the wings and what an idiot he’d made of him self. Natasha talks about faux wedding and honeymoon with Clint that had been part of a cover and T’Challa allows Bucky to show them Shuri’s favorite video of when she introduced him to the power of kinetic energy. It’s good old-fashioned team bonding and Bucky thinks that part of him missed this, being part of such a large team.

They are forced to face reality again though as they pass through the force field and into Wakanda, the Capital gleaming in the bright sun. T’Challa sets them down at the palace and Okoye meets them with a squad of Dora, ready to escort Viper into a proper cell until the Avengers leave to deliver her to the UN as they had been doing with any other senior HYDRA agents they had captured. Sam goes with them just in case and promises to meet them all for dinner later.

They climb back onto the ship and head towards Shuri’s lab, toxin in hand so that she can get to work developing an anti-toxin. Bucky does not expect the feeling of returning home that surfaces as the lab comes into view. Much of the time he is not in the village, he is in the lab and he wonders when it had started feeling like a second home to him.

“I take it the mission was successful since none of you are limping into my lab?” Shuri greets them with a teasing smile, approaching T’Challa and taking his hand for a spilt second before crossing her arms over her chest, he copying the gesture. Their blink and you’ll miss it secret handshake. Bucky learned long ago that it was a silent way for Shuri to say she was glad he was home safe.

“I guess all we needed were a couple of extra sets of hands.” Steve replied, pulling a vial of viscous purple fluid out of one of the pouches on his belt.

“Claws would be a more accurate description.” Natasha said, glancing at Bucky.

Shuri, ever the smartest person in the room, picked up on her meaning and smirked at Bucky. “I told you that you would need it.” He rolled his eyes but chuckled, slipping the necklace off and handing it to her so she could check for damage, T’Challa doing the same.

“Wish I’d known you were indestructible when we were in the lab.” Natasha said pointedly to Bucky.

“Wouldn’t have mattered. We were outgunned either way. I just had to get us out of there, that was the easiest way.”

“And pretending to go full _Soldat_ on me without warning was the easiest way?” She frowned.

“I said I was sorry and I tried to warn you but you decided a joke was more important than”

“What is she talking about?” Shuri interrupted, looking at Bucky with concern.

“Let’s just say your treatment got an unexpected field test and I got some broken ribs because he didn’t think it was important to tell me his plan.”

Bucky sighed and took a deep breath, “Viper had us cornered. She had elite guards and we were trapped in the lab. She mentioned having a more entertaining way to kill us and I made a guess that she probably knew the words. I figured that if Viper thought she had me, I could get both me and Natalia out of there if Viper thought we were fighting. So I told her to trust me, to which she decided to make a joke instead of giving me more time to explain. I let Viper think the words worked, engaged Natalia and busted us both through a window and outside to meet up with the others. I had to keep the act up until I was sure that Viper was distracted enough. I was able to explain to T’Challa when he stepped in and that convinced Viper to let her guard down enough that I could turn on her and we could take her down.”

Bucky looked at Shuri and said “I thought I had made it clear to all of them that you had remove the words and their effect completely and that I wasn’t going to hurt anyone against my will but apparently no one outside of Wakanda trusts me.”

“Buck.” Steve started to say but Natasha beat him to it.

“We didn’t have proof that you actually were clear. I watched some random clever Sokovian man get to you with a butchered Russian accent. I don’t think you can blame me for being worried when an actual member of HYDRA was using the words against you. But we have the proof you’re cured now so no harm done.” She took the vial from Steve and handed it to a surprised Shuri. “Now c’mon Steve, I think we’ve wasted enough of the Princesses time. Lets get out of her hair so she can make you an antitox and we can let the Wakandans get back to their own business.” She practically dragged Steve from the lab despite his protests but soon it was just Shuri, Bucky and T’Challa.

“I do not think I understand what just happened.” Shuri said, looking between the two men.

Bucky sighed and said, “I think I do. But it’s not something you need to worry about, just focus on getting what you need from that. I’m gonna head home, call me if you need me.”

Natasha and Steve have already left the lab by the time Bucky gets back to the landing pad and for a minute he considers letting them go and not worrying about it but he doubted Steve knew more about what was going on than Shuri and T’Challa did. This was an instance where Bucky was perhaps the only person who could help, well aside from maybe Barton, the two of them seemed close. But here and now, Bucky was in a unique position to know more about Natasha than Steve or Wilson did.

They were in her room at the palace, she packing up her small travel bag and Steve sitting on the bed watching her with a concerned look on his face. Bucky knocked lightly on the doorframe and looked at her when she turned to face him. _“May I speak with you Natalia?”_ Her flat expression turned to a frown for a moment before giving a sigh.

“Can you give us a minute Steve?” She asked, setting down the shirt she was folding.

“Yeah, yeah sure, I’ll just uh go find Sam.” He said, practically jumping to his feet in his haste to give them privacy. Bucky closed the door behind him because if he remembered anything about her it was that she valued her privacy and probably wouldn’t even consider talking about her past or the past they shared if there was a chance someone else could hear.

“If this is an apology, I don’t want to hear it. I already told you I’m done talking about what happened.” She said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at him expectantly.

 _“It’s not. Come little spiderling, I have something to show you.”_ He said, walking past her towards the balcony. She hesitated but fell into step just behind him.

 _“Haven’t heard that name in a while.”_ She muttered as if asking for an explanation for a nickname lost to childhood, but he didn’t reply.

He led her out to the balcony but turned around immediately once they were outside and jumped up to a small ledge above the door. He turned back to offer her a hand which she took after another moment of thought.

 _“How old were you when we first met?”_ He asked, leading the way up the side of the palace, scaling the walls with ease thanks to the decorative ornamentation that covered the building.

 _“I thought you had all your memories back?”_ She teased, following behind him.

Bucky chuckled a little and replied _“Give me a break, I’m still a hundred years old. It’s a lot to keep track of.”_ He glanced back at her to catch the slight smile.

_“I was thirteen when the Red Room brought me to HYDRA and told me that I would be training under the Winter Soldier.”_

He scoffed and smiled a little “ _I remember now. You broke my nose the first time we sparred.”_

 _“Only because you broke my sternum and cracked all of my ribs with a single punch.”_ She retaliated petulantly.

He didn’t have many good memories associated with the Red Room and the years they spent working with HYDRA, but he did remember meeting her as something positive, or at least his brain had catalogued it as a positive.

 “And this is your most promising individual?” _His Handler was asking, looking down at the girl with scrutiny. She was a tiny thing next to her own Handler, a stern looking woman with her hair in a tight ballet bun._

“Romanova has exceeded all expectations of our program but she requires more specified and intense combat training than we can supply. She was our only choice for this opportunity.” _The woman was saying but the Soldier was watching the girl carefully. She was younger than he expected. When the handlers were discussing an assassin to be trained for the Soviets he had assumed they meant an adult, not a child. Her hair was fiery red and was pulled back into a slick ponytail. She stood tall and confident, surprising considering she was surrounded by so many adults who could order her dead in an instant. Most surprisingly was that she was willing to not only meet his eyes but hold his gaze unflinchingly. She was not scared of him._

“Soldat.” _His handler snaps and he looks to the man immediately, awaiting orders._ “Weapons.” _He says, holding out his hand. Quickly and efficiently the Soldier removes all his knives from their sheathes and hands over his gun. The Handler gives the girl her choice of his knives and the Soldier feels a stab of possessiveness as she selects one. The Handlers step away and the girl looks to her Handler waiting for her own orders._

 _His Handler turns to the girl and calmly orders,_ “Kill him.”

_She is on him in an instant, lashing out with a kick to his knees and a slash of the knife against his thigh. He doesn’t fall though and kicks her away from him to regain his footing. She lands in a crouch and is rushing at him before he can so much as fall into a defensive stance._

_It’s like trying to fight a snake. She is agile and quick and willing to fight dirty, writhing and dancing and twisting out of his reach, even attempting several times to climb onto his back and slice the knife across his throat. She however does not know how to defend against his robotic arm, more than once trying to slash at it with the knife on instinct and faltering when her attack is not successful. He knocks her down and away from him a handful of times by focusing on using his robotic arm, it’s greater strength more than she can hope to counter. But yet she manages to get through his guard and lock her thighs around his throat, knife discarded across the room after he had disarmed her with a well placed hit. He struggles for longer than he cares to admit, unused to an attack like this. Finally though he stops trying to pry her off of him and punches her directly in the chest with his robotic arm, sending her flying across the room and into the wall._

_She falls to the floor in a heap and struggles to push herself up, breath labored and heavy. Slowly she does stand and coughs to the side, a few flecks of blood splattering on the floor. The Soldier feels the sting of a few cuts and his throat aches with each breath but he is clearly less damaged than the girl. She wipes her wrist across her mouth as his Handler takes a step towards them, mouth open and ready to speak. The Soldier turns to face him_ _and the girl takes her chance, rushing at him so fast and light on her feet he only turns in time for her tiny fist to catch him across the face with enough strength that he hears the bones around his nose crunch and break._

 _His hand flies to his face in shock and he lets out a snarl of anger, rounding on the girl and taking two furious steps towards her, fist raised when his Handler snaps_ “Enough!” _They both still in an instant, at attention to both Handlers. He feels the steady slide of blood down his face and she has a little on the side of her mouth. His Handler looks at them both and the woman is looking at his Handler, a smug expression on her face._

“Soldat report for repairs.” _He says, turning to another operative_ “And show Madame Vasiliev and her, pupil to the infirmary.” _He turns away and the Soldier knows he is dismissed, as he is leaving the room he hears his Handler say_ “The girl shows promise. We will pair them after the Asset’s next wipe. It will be more effective if training her is what it believes its mission is from the start.”

They climb and climb in silence, Natasha keeping pace with him but just behind, watching the route he takes. He pauses on a small hanging ledge and lets her catch up. _“Almost there._ ” He says, coiling into a huge vertical jump, grabbing a windowsill with one arm and hauling himself up. They both know she isn’t capable of making that jump and she looks at him in confusion.

 _“I’ll catch you.”_ He promises. _“Don’t you trust me Natalia?”_ He’s got a coy smile on his face and she rolls her eyes.

 _“You’ve been big on trust lately.”_ She replies, crouching and getting ready to jump, her eyes focused on his outstretched hand. She leaps and for one eternal moment isn’t sure she’ll make it, but then his Vibranium hand wraps firmly around her wrist and she looks up at him. He is balancing on the windowsill with one foot hooked around a support pole and the fingertips of his flesh hand making dust particles come off the stone windowsill with how hard he is holding on. The rest of him is completely stretched down, just far enough to grab her.

 _“It’s all I have left to offer.”_ He says as he lifts her up with ease, until she can find firm footing on the sill, wrapping her arm around his shoulder for balance. If it were anyone else besides maybe Barton, the pose would intimate and romantic. But this was James, _Yasha_ , he had been her mentor and teacher for longer than he had been himself again.

 _“I’m not so sure about that.”_ She says kindly as she removes her arm so he can start climbing again. They keep climbing and climbing and from below she sees him pull himself up and over another ledge, large enough this time that she can’t see him waiting for her.

When she gets up there, she is surprised to find that it’s not a ledge but a roof. She turns around and can see the entirety of the capital city spread around them in a full panorama, the mountains and hills rising up around the valley covered in trees and greenery. The river stretches beneath them in either direction, the water glistening in the late afternoon sun. They’re at the top of the shorter spire of the palace and Natasha looks back at Bucky.

He’s pulled a blanket from some hidden place and spread out it, sitting down comfortably. “Before I could leave the palace I used to come up here to be alone. Everyone here is great but sometimes, I just needed somewhere I could work through my thoughts and memories without someone breathing down my neck and asking if I was alright.” He explained, switching back to English.

“Makes sense.” She agreed, settling down next to him. “So you gonna tell me why you brought me all the way up here? Or was it just for a pretty view?”

“Like I said, sometimes you need a little privacy to work through your thoughts.” He started. “You should know all about that after you released all those files to the world. Brave thing to do considering how few people actually know what your story is.”

“Couldn’t just release some of the files, it was all or nothing.” She said quietly, shrugging a little.

“You know, that’s why I think my brain catalogued the day we met as a positive memory. Because I remember you, the brave, confident, clever little girl who took one look at me and gave it her all instead of backing down from a guy three times your size with a fucking metal arm. Any sane person would’ve, but not you.” He chuckled good-naturedly.

“It’s why I knew I could go through with the act the other day. If I’da been with anyone ‘sides you it wouldn’t have even crossed my mind. Steve woulda just tried to fight his way outta there or gotta too focused on ‘fixin’ me and I can’t take T’Challa in a fight without resorting to tricks, he woulda had me pinned before I could have gotten us out of the building. But I thought that it might even have been something you suggested if we’d had a chance to discuss it. You were always so ready to come up with a cover for anything and everything, drove me crazy when you were a kid. How many different stories did you have for us being siblings that looked nothing alike?” He was caught up in his thoughts and memories now and she seemed content to just listen to him ramble.

“You accent comes back when you’re thinking about the past.” She points out and he laughs. A deep amused laugh that she doesn’t think she’s ever heard from him.

“Yeah, Shuri likes to remind me every time she asks about my memories. Can’t really help it so I just stopped trying.”

“Look, I’m sorry about earlier and how I reacted at the base. You’re right. It was a smart plan and safer than anything I was coming up with. It was thanks to you that we were able to capture Viper. It scared me to see you like that again, even if it was an act because I remember how you were with HYDRA and when we were together and when you forgot who I was after the Soviets wiped you. It reminded me of Odessa when I climbed out of the wreck of the car and you were there but you weren’t you.” She paused and looked out towards the horizon.

He glanced at her and at her hip, delicately lifting the hem of her shirt and running his thumb lightly over the scar.

“I’m sorry. I know at this point it doesn’t matter but it doesn’t change that I regret everything.”

“It wasn’t you. I don’t think Steve realizes that he’s not the only one who knew you before DC. Point is, I was scared and I don’t really react well when I am scared.”

He scoffed and shook his head with a small smile “I should’ve known better than to scare the Black Widow.”

She teasingly punched his shoulder and said, “You’re lucky you had a bulletproof cat-suit.”

They fell into easy companionable silence, watching the mag-lev trains come and go and the boats on the river and the cars and buses in the streets. There was something extra beautiful about Wakanda when you looked at it from up above.

“You’re not coming with us are you.” Natasha eventually said, not a question, a statement of confirmation. “Steve’s gonna be upset.”

“Erik, the guy you met at dinner the other night, he once asked me if Steve came back and asked for my help, would I go? And I told him that I wasn’t sure. That I was tired of fighting but if Steve said he needed me, he really needed Me. Then I’d go no matter what. In my head that’s what happened here. You came to Wakanda because you had nowhere else to go, you came to us, brought him to me, how could I not help? But coming back felt like coming home. I never got the chance to have a big homecoming like the rest of the GI’s, even Steve had something when they got him thawed out. But now, Wakanda is where I think my home is.”

She put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a soft smile “I’m sure Steve will understand, even if he’s not happy about it.”

“Not like he can make me go anywhere, I’m pretty sure I’m the stronger one out of the two of us.”

“I don’t know, I’ve seen the weights he uses at the gym and it’s usually every single one.” She says teasingly and he laughs.

 _“I’m glad we got the chance to talk Natalia.”_ He said, giving a content sigh.

_“I am too Yasha. I am too.”_

His Kimoyo beads chime and Shuri is there when he answers. “I have the anti-toxin completed if you would not mind coming to the lab. I might need to reference your blood to his make sure the antidote works properly.”

“We’ll be there soon.” Bucky says, tapping the bead to end the call.

“Worst part about things like this, now we have to climb back down.” Natasha says, standing and stretching. Bucky starts to fold the blanket up and shakes his head.

“You forget Natalia, this is Wakanda.” He taps a different bead and it pulses with light for a minute until a ship hovers into view.

They arrive last back at the lab, Sam and Steve already inside with Shuri and T’Challa. Steve is sitting on the lab table with his shirt off and the holographic rendering of him is already pulled up in the air behind him.

“Had me a bit worried there.” He comments, looking at Bucky and Natasha.

Bucky shrugs “Had some spy stuff to talk about. I’ve missed a lot of the espionage conferences.” He jokes and Natasha rolls her eyes but she’s got a smile on her face.

And Steve thinks to himself espionage conference or not, Bucky managed to get her out of whatever weird mood she’d been in.

“Captain if you would lay down so I can more accurately administer the cure?” Bucky remembers Steve never being very good for doctors so it’s a miracle Shuri only needs to ask once. Maybe because she’s not a real doctor or maybe just because Steve is feeling helpful today, either way he lays down and Shuri uses a combination of holoprojections and a very small needle to precisely poke into the remains of the scar tissue and give him the anti-toxin. Steve lets out a small hiss of pain and Shuri apologizes quietly, the syringe empty she turns to the scan of his bloodstream and they can see the green flecks of the anti-toxin consuming the purple around the wound. Almost immediately the blue particles of the serum rushed towards the same spot and the healing factor kicked in.

“Captain, I think it is fair for me to pronounce you cured.” Shuri says with a proud smile and Bucky can’t help be feel proud of her himself.

The rest of the day goes by in a blur of celebration, food and drink and Shuri even fires up the holograms from Bucky’s birthday to show to Steve and the others.

“C’mon Steve, show us how you used to party!” Sam cajoles and Steve blushes, laughing and trying to wave him off.

“Didn’t he tell you? He could never dance for shit, I always left him sitting on the wall.” Bucky teases, twirling Natasha as they dance by.

Next thing he knows they’re all headed back to the guest wing and Bucky is leaving Steve at the door to his room. He’s pretty sure that Steve has realized that Bucky isn’t going to be coming with them when they leave tomorrow. Bucky says goodnight and is only a little caught off guard when Steve embraces him tightly.

“I’m gonna miss you Buck.”

“Don’t be such a sap Rogers, this is the future. You can still come visit and we can talk every day. You ain’t getting rid of me that easy after all the shit I went through to see you again.”

Steve laughed and pulled away “If only Dugan and the others could see us now. They wouldn’t believe everything that happened.”

“Oh they’d definitely believe that you still throw yourself into danger for the hell of it and I like to think they’d expect me to be a step behind you.”

“Do you remember that night in France, in the wine cellar? When the owner thanked us by letting us have all the wine we could drink?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Never been so sick in my life.” Before he knew it, he and Steve were sitting on the floor of his guest room, a bottle of whisky from Erik’s stash between them. They couldn’t get drunk anymore but there was something about reminiscing about the old days and everyone they knew that demanded a bottle of liquor. They took turns taking swigs from the bottle like they had on the front and back in Brooklyn when they didn’t have enough glasses to justify using them when there was a perfectly good bottle.

Bucky stays late enough that they both end up passing out in the bed together, memories of shared bedrolls and cots at the front of both of their minds.

_“Rogers and Barnes are sleeping together again.” Monty said from across the fire, poking it with a stick to keep the coals moving._

_“Course, I’m your commanding officer, I get the big tent.” Steve said with a teasing smirk._

_“And what ‘bout him?” Monty continued flicking his head towards Bucky._

_“I’m his lover obviously.” Bucky said, all Brooklyn drawl and easy smiles._

_“Come ‘ere Dollface.” Steve said, voice exaggerated and joking as he wrapped his arms around Bucky and dipped him into a sloppy fake kiss._

_“Oh Captain!” Bucky faux swooned, the boys laughing uproariously around them._

“Sometimes I wish I had jumped out after you.” Steve whispered, looking up at the ceiling.

“Don’t be stupid, not you’re fault I got drafted. Wish we coulda stayed in Brooklyn and helped stateside. You wouldn’t have been a science experiment and we coulda lived our lives without all this. Coulda married a couple of nice dames and our kids woulda grown up like brothers.”

“Coulda opened up a shop like we wanted, made enough money to travel all the way to California.” Steve sighed and rolled over to face Bucky. “Wish it had been for different reasons but I’m glad you lived so we can both be here.”

“Me too Stevie. Me too.”

“You sure I can’t convince you to come with us?” Steve asked the next morning. They were on the landing platform; Quinjet fueled and ready to go. Viper was already loaded on board to be dropped off at the UN headquarters.

Bucky shook his head with a small smile. “Unfortunately no, too much here for me. ‘Sides, you don’t need my help anyway. The only reason I’d come is to keep you out of trouble and Sam and Natalia have that plenty covered for me.”

“You’d best bet I’m gonna use you as a reason to keep him from making stupid decisions.” Sam called from inside the jet, causing both Steve and Bucky to chuckle.

“We’ll keep him safe.” Natasha said, putting her hand on Bucky shoulder.

He drew her into a tight hug and said, _“Keep yourself safe little spiderling.”_

 _“I learned from the best.”_ She leaned up to kiss his cheek, pulling away and stepping past Steve into the jet.

“You know, I could stay, take a vacation.” Steve said, looking back into the jet and then at Bucky.

“No you couldn’t Stevie, you’d be too worried about them to relax for even a minute. It’s alright. I’ll be fine, this is my home now. Not saying you shouldn’t come visit and I’m gonna be pretty mad if you don’t call every once in a while, but they need you more than I need you.”

He wrapped his arm around Steve and pulled him close. “It’s just like before, only this time you’re the one leavin me instead of the other way ‘round.”

“Buck” Steve breathed out, hugging him tight.

“It’ll be alright Steve. This is nothing compared to what we survived to get here. And who knows, maybe in a few years I’ll be invited to join your superhero club and then it’ll be just like old times.”

“I’d like that.” He pulled away and wiped at his eyes with the palm of his hand. “Would you follow Captain America into the jaws of death?” He asked, a sad smile on his face.

“Every day and always, until the end of the line.”

They clasped their hands together, a reassuring gesture that had survived the tests of time. Then Bucky stepped back and Steve stepped into the jet. The ramp lifted and the jet rose from the pad. Bucky watched as it got smaller and smaller and then disappeared beyond the horizon.

“Hope you’re ready for the long haul Stevie.” He muttered to himself, looking out across the city. “Because the end of the line isn’t going to be for a long time if I can help it.”


	52. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise I'm back! Told you there would probably be an epilogue. This isn't much but it was something I felt like the story needed to get full closure. 
> 
> Once again thank you all for your love on this story, I am grateful from the bottom of my heart for all the kindness.
> 
> Edit 7/31/18 Minor edits to chapter and New Story Posted

1 Year Later

“Mr. Stark why have you called this conference?”

“Mr. Stark what do you have to say about the rumors of completely disbanding the Avengers?”

“Why have the Avengers been inactive?”

“Do you have any idea of the whereabouts of Captain America?”

“Mr. Stark!” “Mr. Stark!” “Mr. Stark!”

The constant flashing of camera been something Tony Stark had been used to for a very long time. His entire life had been spent in front of the press, each and every move and word judged and spread out in newspapers, magazines and tabloids. He was used to the spotlight, even embraced it, but today the lights and sounds were giving him a headache.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats.” Pepper’s voice cut in, firm but polite, silencing the room in an instant. She looked at Tony, grasping his hand in her own reassuringly as she stepped away from the podium. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles before taking a deep breath and stepping to the podium.

“So I bet you’re wondering why I gathered you all here today? Reporters, internet bloggers, government representatives, the whole shebang.” He spoke quickly but clearly, eyes sweeping the room with the same easy Stark confidence he was known for. He paused, somewhat for dramatic effect and somewhat to give himself a chance to collect his thoughts. ‘ _Okay Tony don’t dance around it. Just get it out there and weather the storm.’_

“I’m requesting that the United States government grant amnesty to Captain Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff, Agents Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton, Sam Wilson, Scott Lang, and,” he hesitated and the room was silent, microphones pointed at him in rapt interest “and Sergeant James Barnes.”

The room erupted into chaos, questions and shouting and the ever present clicking and flashing of cameras. He cleared his throat and focused on loosening his fingers from the grip on the lectern.

“Everyone involved with what the press dubbed ‘The Avengers Civil War’ did nothing wrong besides disagree with the Sokovia Accords. Which my lawyers have been pouring over for the last few years and found were set up to cause exactly what happened. It was an elaborate way to break up the Avengers. Which is why I am formally removing my name and the support of Stark Industries and therefore the resources and assets of the Avengers from the accords. I can’t speak for Rhodey, uh Colonel Rhodes, or for Vision or anyone else who did sign, but I’m withdrawing my support. I still believe that some kind of I don’t know, something, needs to be put in place but done in a way that all of us involved, the UN, the World and the heroes feel happy and comfortable with.”

He looked past the crowd and at the back wall of the room. “I became Iron Man to help the people who could not help themselves or receive help because of bureaucracy. The Accords only tangle things further into that web. There have been people who I could not help because the Accords prevented me from doing so.” He swallowed stiffly and said “People have died that I could have saved because I put my name on that document.” The room had fallen silent once more, listening to his declaration.

Tony looked back at the reporters and said, “I’m done letting that happen. As for the other little detail. We’ve all seen what Sergeant James Barnes went through; the files have been public for years now. He deserves an apology from us, the citizens who refused to see that he had been tortured and abused for years into something that could barely be called human and then when he tried to get better, to heal himself, we prosecuted him for what he did away from his right mind. I should know, I was the one leading the charge. The Winter Soldier killed my parents, shot the tires on their car and killed them both in cold-blood, but he was not the one responsible for their deaths. It was the monsters who destroyed a good man, an honorable man, so thoroughly that he forgot himself and his entire life. They are the ones who deserve to be punished. It took me a long time to come to that realization but I know it is the right one.”

Stark looked directly at the television cameras lining the back of the room. “So I just have one thing left to say and I’m only going to say it once. Avengers Assemble and that sure as hell means all of you, even you Robocop.” He was smiling now and did not let his gaze fall from the cameras as the main conference room of Stark Tower exploded into noise around him.

Across the world, in a sports bar in Hungary, Wanda Maximoff and Clint Barton read and reread the subtitles as Stark spoke. “Guess I have some calls to make.” Clint said, standing from the booth with his phone pressed to his ear and a smile on his face. As he went outside Wanda heard him saying “I know honey, I saw it. I’m coming home.”

Somewhere in a small town in Southeast Asia, Steve, Sam and Natasha watched from the grainy TV in their motel room. “Looks like we have some stops to make on our way back to New York boys.” Natasha said, phone already out and fingers flying as she composed a text to all the secure lines of their scattered members. Steve looked down at the matte gray-black beads around his wrist and smiled.

And in throne room of Wakanda there was an awed, stunned silence. Bucky felt his heart racing in his chest and looked to Shuri, whose smile practically rivaled the one that was growing on Bucky’s face. T’Challa’s face held a grin and around the room the Dora Milaje looked and felt the exact same. T’Challa put a hand on Bucky’s shoulder and said “I think you have somewhere to be my friend.”

“Do not forget Brother, you are an Avenger now too. You both have somewhere far more important to be than sitting around here with us. Go!” Shuri said, pushing them towards the door, her voice tinged with laughter. Her Kimoyo beads began to flash bright red and she tapped them without hesitation.

“Shuri did you see?” Peter asked excitedly.

“I am trying to get them both out the door right now!” She confirmed.

“Great, I’ll see you guys there!”

“FRIDAY?” Tony Stark said, stepping into the elevator of the Avenger’s compound with a content feeling in his chest.

“Yes Boss?”

“Prep all the landing pads and set all the guest rooms to the preset preferences. We’ve got company coming.” He said and for the first time in longer than he could remember, Tony Stark felt like everything was going to be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. The true end. But not the end of my time writing for the MCU, I have another story that I'm in the planning stages of that is going to be much different than this. 
> 
> Here's a tiny sneak preview
> 
> ~
> 
> “So what are we dealing with and how did it break into my Tower?” Tony Stark asked, a faint blue glow coming from his chest, despite the way his arms were crossed over it. He and the rest of the members of their new ragtag group of heroes aside from the Asgardian, Thor, stood before the cell in the lowest sub-basement of SHIELD’s New York headquarters, battered and bruised but still standing, somehow. 
> 
> Fury looked to Romanov, whose eyes had not left the man that was unconscious in the cell. She chewed at her lip thoughtfully for a moment and Stark turned to her, mouth open and ready to demand answers to anything after the hell of a day they’d had but she beat him to it. “Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe they exist. A pair of assassins credited with nearly fifty confirmed kills between them and a hell of a lot more that are credited to them. They call them The Winter Soldiers. They’re ghosts. Brutally efficient but no trace or evidence or witnesses left behind after a kill. I had a run in with this one back when I first joined SHIELD.” 
> 
> “You said pair.” Bruce said quietly. “Does that mean there is another one who was trying to get to the Tesseract?” 
> 
> “I don’t know much about the other one besides that they are unwaveringly loyal to each other and only each other.” She turned to look at Fury. “If I were you, I would up the security in the entire building. The other Soldier is probably on his way.”
> 
> ~
> 
> Edit 7/31/18 New story now posted!


	53. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surprise 53rd (and 54th to come soon) chapter to thank you all for 30k hits and continued support for this story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be fair I wasn't going to do anything else with this story. But then I saw how close I was to 30k and I thought 'huh' another chapter could be kind of fun, and then I got thinking and then writing and then all of a sudden it was 2000+ words and I was only half done with my idea.

When Tony Stark had assembled the Avengers four and a half years ago, Shuri had known things were going to change. She had excitedly sent Bucky and T’Challa off to America with teasing threats upon her lips if they did not answer the summons that had included them despite all the misgivings Tony Stark may have had with Bucky or T’Challa for sheltering him. She had known things would change now that Bucky was considered free from the crimes he had been forced to commit and no longer trapped in Wakanda for his own safety. She had known things would change now that Wakanda was coming out of the shadows and it’s technology slowly being put on display to the rest of the world. She had known many things would change that day, but perhaps she was naïve still in her age to think that some things would stay the same.

At first he’d spent his down time in Wakanda and things had been how they always were but then as he was called away more and more, it became more logical for him to have a more permanent place in America, near the rest of the Avengers. T’Challa got a pass since he still had the country to lead, but Bucky, with no such responsibilities and nothing tying him to Wakanda but the people, well it didn’t take a genius to decide where the smarter place to set up a home base was.

He still checked in as often as he could, sometimes several times a day if he was bored or had nothing else to do. Sometimes she would set up a video call in the lab while she worked and they would just enjoy each others company from thousands of miles away. It was different but still okay. He made time to visit as much as possible and for any reason, coming to the birthday celebrations of not just her but also T’Challa, Erik, Nakia and even Ramonda. He showed up for all the festivals and nation wide celebrations and feasts. He came still for her to do maintenance and tune-ups on his arm, even though she knew Stark had the knowledge to likely do it himself. In a way it still wasn’t so bad. She saw him more than she saw Peter and they made due just fine with video and phone calls and the wonder that was the Internet, it really wasn’t so bad.

Sometimes she wouldn’t hear from him for long stretches of time and then news would break that the Avengers had been involved in some heroic deed, Bucky always on screen side by side with Captain America, arm glinting in the sun. Sometimes he had the White Wolf mantle around his neck, sometimes he didn’t. Sometimes she didn’t have to wait for the news to find out what was going on because T’Challa would be there as well, making her far too busy helping him to worry about Bucky.

He wasn’t the only one who was busy however. As Wakanda’s presence on the world stage grew, so did the responsibility on Shuri’s shoulders. As the technological head of Wakanda, she was always the first one the outsiders sought out with questions. Her staff had been briefed about what was allowed to be shared and spoken of and what wasn’t and she had no fears or worries that anyone would let something slip either by accident or on purpose, but what they were sharing was still vast. Much of it was medical technology and once it was made public that she had personally designed the prosthetic arm for the Winter Solider as well as being the one who had led development and implementation of the procedure to rid him of the HYDRA programming, medical professionals from all over the world wanted the chance to speak with her and hear her thoughts on their own patients.

Some things were easy; Stark Industries already was working on prosthetics, all it took was few videoconferences with Tony Stark and a few encrypted emails with designs and notes and Wakanda’s tech was easily intertwined with Starks designs. A few of Wakanda’s engineering and medical staff went to New York to aid in the creation of prototypes and they were set. It wasn’t a difficult decision for Wakanda to ally itself with Stark Industries. Wakanda had no interest in becoming a commercial superpower or even really worrying about making immense profits from the sharing of their tech, so working directly with Stark Industries R&D team was in a way ideal. Wakanda had enough freedom to provide it’s tech to whomever they chose with no stipulations, but the ease of production on mass-quantities that Stark Industries had perfected was helpful. Sure Shuri could make a prosthetic arm that interfaced wirelessly to the neurons of the brain and could detect pressure and temperature changes so slight that it was near perfect simulation to actual touch, but she couldn’t make them at a quantity to really make a difference to amputees.

Unfortunately the newfound publicity Shuri gained also brought new threats. They’d all learned a valuable lesson when Shuri had been kidnapped from a club in America and no one was keen on repeating that experience. She’d been learning self-defense since the day after she had returned to Wakanda after the rescue. First basics from T’Challa, then more in-depth techniques with Okoye, then American style fighting from Erik and even more from Bucky. Of course all the self-defense lessons in the world didn’t matter when the attacker caught her off-guard.

“In New York, getting dinner with Peter tonight but free tomorrow.” She typed quickly on her Kimoyo beads as she walked out of the hospital and towards the back of the parking lot where her ship sat as unobtrusively as possible. She was scrolling through her contact codes to find Bucky’s name when she felt a sharp sting on her neck. Okoye had gone ahead to start up the ship while Shuri had been signing a child’s cast, deciding that the now nearly 21-year-old Princess could handle walking across a well-lit hospital parking lot in suburban New York without a bodyguard. Sure enough Okoye saw Shuri stumble and fall to her knees from the ship, rushing towards the Princess from across the parking lot, but as her vision grew hazy Shuri saw Okoye slap her own hand to her neck and falter on her feet.

“ _Call T’Challa”_ Shuri mumbled as dark shapes filled her vision and her eyes slipped shut.

She got her hearing back before her vision, not that it made much a difference considering she couldn’t understand what was being said. She attempted to reach and stretch her arms, her shoulders sore and tight, but found herself unable, her muscles stiff. _‘Okay Shuri, lets take stock of what we know.’_ She told herself. She was sitting up in what felt like a simple metal chair, her arms were bound to the chair and wrists bound together but the comforting weight of her Kimoyo beads was still present. ‘ _Thank you bio-lock’_ She could hear voices speaking a language she didn’t understand, they sounded male for the most part. Her eyelids still felt too heavy to move, whatever she’d been drugged with was strong.

“Ah Princess, so nice of you to finally join us.” A man drawled, his voice accented in a way that was almost familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on. Shuri could only groan in response, her body not ready to cooperate yet. The man hummed in dissatisfaction and said “Perhaps the dosage was too high for someone of your size and metabolism, an honest mistake I assure you.” She felt a sting in her upper arms and a few seconds later the stiffness and heaviness began to fade.

She blinked her eyes open but shut them again quickly against the brightness of fluorescent lights shining directly at her, letting out a hiss of displeasure, the man chuckling in mocking amusement at her reaction. “I do not know who you think you are but Wakanda will not stand for this.” She threatened, trying to make her expression intimidating despite her eyes still shut tight.

The man merely laughed again and a soft ‘click’ sounded from nearby. She braced herself for the press of a gun to her skin or really any sort of weapon and nervously opened her eyes to see that it had only been the harsh lights dimming to a more manageable level. Her vision was still filled with spots that did her no favors in trying to discern the features of her captor.

Shuri blinked the spots away as best she could but realized the man had positioned himself behind one of the large fluorescent light panels, the shadowed room preventing her from making out much more than his silhouette. “Our terms are simple Princess, you lend your skills and knowledge to our cause and no harm shall come to you or your associate.” She barely kept herself from shouting threats and curses in every language she knew that they would dare hold Okoye’s safety over her head.

“What use could your cause possibly have for my knowledge over someone else’s?” She questioned, forcing herself to stay calm now that she knew it was not just her own life she held.

The man laughed again and Shuri decided she found the sound so grating that not hearing it again for the rest of her life would be far too soon. “Princess, you underestimate your own abilities. Even with your failures to completely rewrite the Winter Solider programming, you are still the brightest mind the world currently has.”

The casual knowing ease that he spoke with made her blood run cold. For a moment she questioned her own English comprehension, surely he wasn’t claiming that Bucky wasn’t cured. She had poured over scans of his mind for days, weeks, making sure that each and every neuron and pathway was aligned properly, that there were no patches of scar tissue left behind from his body trying to heal itself of the damage done to his brain. She had spent months helping him regain his memories and had read those damnable words every night to him for nearly two weeks until he was sure they no longer effected him. This man was bluffing. He had to be.

He read her silence for the astonishment it was and continued as though there hadn’t been a lengthy pause. “I will concede the work you did was impressive, nearly flawless even. But in the end, a well-trained dog will always return to its handler.”

Shuri couldn’t even find the breath to reprimand him for referring to Bucky in such a dehumanizing way. She couldn’t find the words to refute his claims despite her confidence in her skills. But perhaps it was as this man had said, ‘nearly flawless’ but not perfect. Perhaps there was something, a bundle of damaged neurons that was a trigger left behind dormant? Maybe in her excess of time spent looking at scans of undamaged brain tissue she had grown complacent and relied too heavily on her own self-assurance that everything was as it should be. It would explain why she hadn’t spoken to Bucky in months, why she hadn’t seen him in person in almost a year. Her heart began to race in her chest in panic that she had let Bucky down, that he had been captured and all his progress from years of hard work set back because she had missed something.

“Perhaps some time to consider my preposition?” The man said, a derisive smirk in his voice. He barked a command in the language from before and she realized it was Russia. She didn’t speak it but she’d heard Bucky speak it enough to recognize the sounds. One of the light panels was moved aside and a trio of silhouettes joined the man, two carrying the distinctive shapes of assault rifles.

“You are the ones he spoke of.” She said, finding her voice again at last and trying to at least get some sort of idea of what was going on. “You are HYDRA.” She continued, the man holding up a hand to pause the newcomers to halt. “The Avengers are destroying your organization one base at a time. You must be getting desperate if you think kidnapping me and trying to force me to craft technology would end well for you.” For a long moment Shuri felt as though she had won a small victory when all she received in reply was silence.

Eventually the man spoke up once more “If you are familiar with our organization you should know quite well of our capability for survival. Cut off one head young Princess and two more shall grow in its place.” He gave a slight nod to his cohorts and the soldiers stepped out of the shadows. Shuri swore she could feel her heart fall into her stomach when Bucky was the one leading the trio.

She couldn’t bring herself to say a word, in far too much shock to beg or plea for familiarity or recognition. She couldn’t even bring herself to try and fight when the all-too familiar metal hand grabbed her by the shoulder and hauled her to her feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 54 on the way ;)


	54. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suuuuper sorry for the delay. Real-life just slapped me in the face and then I had writers block on top of it and I was moving with my cat and just busy busy busy. 
> 
> But it's here now! And it's longer than my usual length so hopefully that makes up a little bit for the wait. 
> 
> I would say this is the last chapter but to be honest I actually have no clue if it is. The idea that popped up for this chapter and the last one was so spontaneous, whose to say it won't happen again?
> 
> So goodbye for now, thank you for the continued and wonderful support and enjoy!

She stayed silent and tried to focus on her surroundings and the turns they were taking, rather than thinking about who was taking her. He hadn’t said a word to her or anyone, the two armed men eerily silent as well. Finally they arrived in what she assumed what her ‘accommodations’ it was a hallway lined with jail cells out of some old movie, she would have scoffed and mocked the cheesiness of it if she wasn’t so shocked by this entire experience.

They stopped in front of an empty cell and one of the men handed Bucky a key. He said something to the man in Russian and while the soldier looked unsure he and his partner turned to leave as Bucky unlocked the cell.

“ _You are in so much trouble right now.”_ He finally whispered in Xhosa, his accent poor and rough from disuse and tone frustrated. He continued before she could even process what he was saying, “ _You’re lucky I was getting ready to wrap up this mission or you would have compromised it all.”_ She didn’t care if he was mad at her for nearly ruining whatever the hell he was doing here, all she cared was that the man had been wrong. She hadn’t failed Bucky. He hadn’t been rebrainwashed. He was still himself. She looked up at him and despite his glare; she could see the sharpness and awareness in his eyes. She’d heard more than one person describe how flat and cold the Winter Soldier’s gaze was. No matter what happened or how he acted or spoke, the way his eyes looked was something Bucky Barnes could not change. She could have hit herself for not noticing sooner.

She wanted to tackle him in a hug and apologize for doubting him and ask what was going on and how he was doing and a million other things, but held back. Clearly he was deep undercover right now and the last thing they needed was for her to blow that by revealing him. She forced herself to keep quiet and her expression blank as he lightly pushed her into the cell.

“ _Speak only in Xhosa, no one here knows it. Don’t get into anymore trouble while I contact the others.”_ He instructed, shutting the door and locking it. He walked away without another word, expression flat and unfeeling.

Once he was out of her field of view she saw Okoye’s limp form laying in the cell across from hers and breathed a sigh of relief. They wanted her as a bargaining chip and even a criminal organization wouldn’t keep a corpse in a locked cell. She figured Okoye just hadn’t been given the luxury of an antidote like Shuri had.

“ _Okoye!”_ Shuri hissed trying to wake the older woman. “ _Okoye!”_ She tried again but it seemed the attempts were futile, the drug still too potent. Okay, she could be patient; she could wait for Okoye to wake on her own and for Bucky to get them out. She may as well start forming her apology now, no better time than the present.

Bucky returned to the ‘room’ that had been given to the Winter Soldier, barely more than a cell itself. It did however have a door and the benefit of being soundproof. He’d hacked the camera in the ceiling long ago so he knew that at least in this room he had privacy. The moment the door was shut he took the safety pin hidden in the seam of his pants and unclasped it, carefully and deliberately sliding the pointed tip between two of the panels on his metal forearm. A little bit of wiggling and he managed to flick the release catch, the panel and the two on either side of it popping off in one smooth piece. The routine had become almost muscle memory at this point with how often the others demanded contact.

He fished out the small com hidden between the wires and mechanisms of his arm and tapped the button to encrypt the message before saying “They are in the compound unharmed. Managed not to blow my cover. I have enough evidence to bring the place down. Ready to begin phase four at your discretion.”

He had to admit that he’d been concerned when he had received the report that Shuri and Okoye had never returned to their hotel. It was somewhat unexpected that they had ended up in a heavily hidden HYDRA base, considering their prominence and connections to the Avengers. It was a hell of a bold move for HYDRA to pull, a sign at their growing desperation. Shuri had commented as much herself to Ivanov. But it also gave Bucky a pretty solid reason to cut this op short. Sure he’d planned to do so in the next week or so anyway but the sooner he got out of this shithole the better.

Now he just had to wait for the confirmation that the others were on their way. It would do none of them any good if he ruined his cover before they were ready. He’d put months of groundwork into getting enough evidence to figure out what HYDRA planned to do next as well as find enough proof that this place was a front for HYDRA and get everyone who worked for the company in the skyscraper above arrested for terrorism. It was a good day to be a superhero if he had to admit. A miserable mission but a successful one all around, even with Shuri and Okoye getting captured, he could get them out before either was harmed in anyway.

A slight buzz of the device and he looked at the message that scrolled across the tiny screen ‘ _Hold position. Phase 4 commence @ 2300’_

Shuri wasn’t sure how long she had been in the cell or how long it had been since the parking lot for that matter. The facility she had seen so far was all dimly lit with not a window in sight. No clocks or any way to see the time either. She guessed it had been at least several hours but having been drugged she had no clue how long she had been unconscious before waking bound to that chair.

Okoye had woken up at some point but was still groggy and disoriented. Shuri had explained what she knew up to this point though, that HYDRA had kidnapped them and that Bucky was deep undercover, posing as the Winter Soldier. The fact that Okoye didn’t even question Shuri’s certainty about Bucky’s state of mind said a lot about the trust she had in the princess’s abilities. And that was something Shuri was endlessly grateful for.

She had started to doze off a little after Okoye had assured her that she had enough awareness to keep watch but was startled out of any possible sleep when alarms began to blare. She looked at Okoye in concern but the older woman could offer no words or comfort so they both waited in wordless uncertainty.

The door at the end of the hall opened and flashing red light filled the room. For a moment Shuri feared a HYDRA soldier was coming to move or retrieve them but was relieved to see it was Bucky. He had a handgun in his human hand and the White Wolf mantle of all things resting around his neck. Shuri couldn’t help the small smile that rose on her face at seeing it.

“Let’s go.” He said quickly unlocking both cells and nodding a greeting to Okoye. “We have to move fast while the others have them distracted.”

He led them out as though the Winter Soldier was moving prisoners, the barrel of the gun pressed to Okoye’s back and his Vibranium hand firmly on Shuri’s shoulder. The act got them past quite a few of the other soldiers, the base in far too much chaos for anyone to really take a second look or question what may be going on. As they moved further and further around the compound the sounds of a conflict began to grow louder. Shuri could faintly hear the whine of repulsors and the metallic ‘twang clunk’ of Captain America’s shield as it bounced around the room.

“What the hell are you doing moving them instead of stopping the Avengers?” A man in a business suit demanded of Bucky, his eyes wide in anger and fear. “Forget those two savages and get up there and stop them!”

Bucky stopped and Shuri wondered what his plan was. She didn’t expect the small huff of laughter and the feel of the White Wolf suit shuddering into place. She glanced back at him and allowed herself a smile seeing the smirk on his face.

“You’d really think that after all the times I’ve pulled this gag that you would have caught on.” He said and Shuri watched the man’s expression fall into fearful disbelief.

“And who are you calling savages anyway Colonizer, your men kidnapped me because I am the smartest person they could think of.” Shuri added, grinning mockingly at the man. Suddenly he pulled a gun and fired three shots at them but her view was blocked by a swathe of white Vibranium nanite mesh.

“What did I say about staying out of trouble?” Bucky reprimanded and Shuri could only give a sheepish look at the eyepieces of the cowl.

He turned his attention back to the man and said, “It’s over Daniels. Come quietly and maybe your sentence won’t be as bad. Though there is only so much we can do when you operate a front for a known terrorist organization, torture and brainwash someone and kidnap the Princess and General of a foreign country. But like I said, we’ll see what we can do.” She knew Bucky well enough at this point to hear the smirk in his voice. Daniels looked down the hall behind him and then back at Bucky, as if calculating how far he might be able to make it before putting his hands up in the air with a sigh and settling to his knees.

“ _Do you have any idea how worried Mama was when you did not check in?”_ Was the first thing Shuri heard when T’Challa rounded the corner in a run, mask falling away as he embraced her hard enough to drive the breath from her lungs.

“ _I’m sorry. They drugged me before I could react.”_ She said, leaning into his embrace and reveling in the feel of the material of his suit against her.

“ _It is not your fault, I am just glad you are safe.”_ He assured her, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. “ _And I owe you my gratitude as well my friend.”_ T’Challa continued, Shuri looking up to see who he was speaking to.

“There’s no need. You know I’d do anything for your family.” Bucky said with a nod, arms crossed over her chest and eyes meeting T’Challa’s only briefly as they traced across the room where the HYDRA soldiers were being rounded up. He was acting more serious than usual; well at least from the last time she had seen him.

“Bucky, I” She started to say, pulling away from T’Challa but her brother shook his head slightly.

“Like I said, no need to say thanks or apologize. Wasn’t your fault.” Bucky said before abruptly turning and walking away.

Shuri opened her mouth to call out to him, thinking he was mad or disappointed in her but T’Challa’s words stopped her “ _Give him time Sisi, before your unexpected arrival he had been undercover for a number of weeks. Give him a chance to readjust his mind. Come, I would like you to see a doctor before we find Okoye and go home. Mama is waiting.”_

She didn’t get a chance to say anything to Bucky again. The next few hours were spent getting looked at and cleared by doctors and giving her testimony to the agents, T’Challa fretting like a mother hen around her the entire time. Then as if nothing had every happened she was on the ship that she and Okoye had taken to America and they were headed home.

Returning home was just as much a whirlwind of her mother and other staff worrying over her and her well being no matter how many times she assured them that she was unharmed. Finally she got the chance to retire to her room and flopped down the bed, the material giving perfectly under her weight.

She just wanted to close her eyes and sleep for days and forget all this had ever happened. She wanted to forget the feelings of dread and horror that had welled up when it was Bucky who had led her to the cell as though they had never met. She wanted to forget the self-doubt that had filled her mind when that man had told her she had failed. What kind of genius was she if she was so willing to question her abilities at the words of some crazy Nazi freak? She assumed they must have used the words on Bucky and he had faked compliance, proof enough that she had done her job in erasing their power from his mind. But the possibility of failure that man had implied, the seed of doubt he had planted, it was plenty of material to fuel her own mind in creating all the possible ways she had failed.

She swiped open the files on her Kimoyo beads, speeding through menus and typing passwords until her secure files were displayed. A swipe and a tap later and the scans of Bucky’s brain were displayed in the air above her bed. She had to be sure. Had to check all the data again. She would not allow him to be hurt like that ever again. No one could use him like HYDRA had. Not while she had any say in the matter. She was the foremost living authority on the scientific torture James Buchanan Barnes had suffered. She knew more about what had happened to his brain each time they had forced him into that chair than even he did himself. It was her responsibility to ensure his thoughts and actions would remain his own for the rest of his life.

As much as she knew her body was craving the comfort of sleep, she couldn’t sleep now. Not when she had data to check. This was more important than sleep. She had to get to the lab.

 

48 hours later

 

No matter how many times he had done it, Bucky always felt twisting worry in his gut when he was about the fly through the holographic dome that hid Wakanda from the rest of the world. The thought of being in the wrong spot always crossed his mind, followed quickly by the mental image of the ship crashing through the trees and exploding in a fireball. Of course the ship was programmed well enough that there was never any actual fear of such a result but there were just some things he could never shake.

He’d been put on ‘extended leave, barring crisis’, fancy words for ‘take as long as you want, we’ll call if we need you’. It was more than enough of an excuse for him to pack his bag and hop into his ship with a quick goodbye and a reminder to come visit before he was in the air and headed for Wakanda.

It had been nearly a year since he’d been back, missions coming one after another until they had stumbled upon intel that told of the CEO of a major global corporation secretly being a front for HYDRA activity. Of course that had led to the obvious plan of the ‘rogue Winter Soldier’ showing up on HYDRA’s radar and getting brought back in for reconditioning. He’d played his part of disoriented, practically brain-dead super assassin so well they had been convinced of the success of the conditioning after only one repetition of the words. The last time he had infiltrated a HYDRA op this way they had spent a day torturing and reconditioning him before they were happy.

He’d felt bad for dropping off the radar so suddenly, Shuri had been planning a trip to New York and they were going to meet up, but he knew in the end she would understand. Maybe if she got really concerned T’Challa would explain. He knew Erik understood the necessity of disappearing and never held it against him if they didn’t speak for months on end and he was always there to talk when Bucky contacted him. Shuri was a slightly different story, she knew he did undercover work and went on dangerous ops where he had to keep contact to the bare minimum but she was still younger than all of them besides Parker. And she had admitted that she would always worry about Bucky because in a way he was her most successful experiment. She wasn’t used to him purposefully putting himself in HYDRA’s hands and he didn’t want to subject her to the possible worry for her own abilities that might happen if she knew the extent of what he did.

Which is why he wanted to talk to her about what had happened before he did anything else in Wakanda. They hadn’t spoken much at the facility, which he admitted was his own fault. Between worrying about her safety, finishing the op and also being in the strange overlapping mental state of the Winter Soldier and Bucky Barnes, they just hadn’t had the chance.

“ _I told her you needed time. But when you are ready, I am sure she would appreciate a message or a visit if you can. In fact, I think we all would. N’Jadaka asked about what you have been doing, as did my mother. She commented that it has been some time since you had returned to Wakanda.” T’Challa said, the invite heavily implied._

_“After that mission if I don’t get at least a week off I’m quitting the Avengers and moving back to my hut. Either way the moment this whole Daniels thing is sorted I’m on the ship and out of the states. I can promise you that.” Bucky assured him with a small smile, T’Challa clasping their hands together in response._

There was a new landing pad outside the lab, likely necessary to deal with the new influx of ships coming and going with tech to be used all around the world.

“ _Welcome Bucky Barnes”_ His ship voiced in Xhosa, the interface already syncing with that of the security of the lab and his Kimoyo beads. “Good to know she hasn’t deleted me from the security system yet.” He commented to himself as he landed on an open pad.

The door to the lab slid open without any hesitation as he approached, Kimoyo beads acting as an all-access pass. As he made his way down towards the main lab, several techs greeted him with smiles and words of welcome and he couldn’t help but return them. Even with all his time away, coming back to Wakanda and being welcomed by its people felt like coming home.

Shuri was hunched over her table, surrounded by projections of numbers and data. Some of her braids were tied up out of her face but still some hung loose in a style messier than she usually sported. He paused for a moment to just watch her work, fingers flying over the holographic keyboard and hands swiping this way and that to move screens and data around. For once the lab was silent aside from the gentle hum of machinery and the occasional whooshing of a train as it passed by, there wasn’t any music to give him hints about what sort of project she might be working on.

She swiped something up and over the pile of braids on her head he caught a glimpse of a familiar screen. Brain scans, his own head in three-dimensional holoprojection.

“You know,” He said, choosing to speak up now. “I didn’t feel the slightest bit worried when they said those words.” He meant it to be reassuring and playfully teasing. When she turned to look at him and her eyes were tired and bloodshot his teasing expression melted into a concerned frown.

“Hey kid, what’s wrong?” He embraced her the moment she was in reach, the same way he always did when she was upset. But this time instead of sobbing or spilling all her worries she just stood there unmoving. “Shuri?” He asked, looking down at her.

Her eyes were glistening with tears on the verge of falling but none did. “I’m sorry if I scared you” he began to say as he pulled away, assuming she was still freaked out by his necessary deception but she finally spoke up to interrupt him.

“It is my fault, not yours.” Her voice was quiet and rough, as though she hadn’t said a word all day. “I should have been more thorough, I need to be sure. I will not let it happen again.”

“Shuri what are you talking about?” 

“I might have missed something. I just need to be sure.”

“You’ve lost me kid, what’s got you all worked up?”

She pulled back and turned abruptly to look back at the screens. He realized now it was all data she had complied and found about him and what HYDRA had done to him.

“Is this about what Ivanov said to you?” Bucky finally realized. “He was wrong about all of that bullshit.” He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, removing his hand in an instant when she flinched. “Shuri, he was trying to upset you. I’m fine. I was always fine. It was an act, I promise.”

“I just have to be sure.” She repeated, looking away and not meeting his eyes.

“Shuri I’m sorry about not replying and for pretty much disappearing off the face of the Earth. I figured that you would understand and that if you were worried T’Challa would have told you what was going on. I didn’t mean to scare you or make you worry. Tell me what I can do to help you, to prove that I’m fine. Right now all I can do is apologize and that is clearly not enough. I’ll sit through a dozen more scans if it will help you realize how incredible a job you did. You didn’t make any mistakes and I have no worries about any programming resurfacing, the one triggered by the words least of all.”

Her eyes found his and the tears that had been welling up finally began to spill over, sliding down her cheeks and tracing a glistening path. She blinked a few times, more tears dripping downwards. Her breath hitched once, twice and then she threw her arms around him and was sobbing into his chest. He let her cry for a moment before slowly wrapping his arms around her and hugging her to him. As much as he hated seeing her cry, crying was good. It meant she was acknowledging the emotions and the stress that had probably been building up for several days at this point.

“I’m fine. I’m right here.” He reassured again, barely speaking loud enough to be heard over her sobs. He continued to mutter soft reassurances and comments until her breathing returned to a more regular pace and her sobs turns to sniffles and then to calm. They stood there in silence as she collected herself and eventually looked up at him.

“If you do not stay for at least a month I will revoke my agreement that you are clear for Avengers work.” She threatened but the wry tone and small smile proved her teasing intent, despite the redness of her eyes and salt-stains on her cheeks.

“You say that now kid but we’ll see how you like me being back when I don’t leave you alone for the next two months.” He replied with a smile.

“I am glad you are back Bucky.” She said with a content sigh, embracing him again, this time with far less desperation and far more happiness.

“There is no where else in the world I’d rather be kid.”


End file.
